bread, body, and a story about a toilet

March 5th, 2006

Bread:

It's one of the things I've given up this lent, though I have to admit I don't eat it any time of the year on a daily basis. I guess the challenge comes in eating out or away from home where pizza and sandwhiches and flatbread look so yummy. It's been a challenge so far but today I had some extra motivation.

“man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (Deuteronomy 8:3) (Jesus avoiding temptation).

It's not so much this verse that inspired me but the fact that Jesus is the bread of life. He is my sustinance. And I think it profoundly appropriate that the only bread I will have this lent is in fact not bread at all but the body, blood, soul and divinity of my Jesus.

Now that makes me want to walk away from a pizza!

Body:
I went to Caribou Coffee to study today both because it got me out of the house and because it was close to the house where I was babysitting tonight. While I was there I had two cups of coffee. I've only had about a cup and a half of coffee in the
past month. (Remember this, it will be important to the next section of this post). While there I was studying Theology of the Body. The section I was reading today got me thinking, along with other comments in the course of my week.

I struggle with my weight, it's no secret, I always have really. At this moment I have a better grasp on health than I have in a long time, weighing 30 pounds less than I did at my heaviest (only 2 years ago). In any case, at moments I notice the obsession with food (that still has a pretty good grip on my life) has not in fact been transformed but only turned into an obsession with eating healthy and working out. These two things are not bad in and of themselves and are even a preferred obsession to gluttony but they still do not warrant purity.
Purity is what this current section of the class is about. JPII is constantly stating that purity is, among other things, mastery over one's impulses. Purity is freedom in that sense. It is me, realizing myself as gift and because of that gift having authority over my passions. This current section also spoke of manipulation of the body in any way as being contrary to purity.
The other day in a study session we talked about seeing our bodies as a mere attachment to myself, a machine with which I can do as I please (a common mindset of modernity) as being distorted. We also noted however that seeing the body as an addendum AT ALL, even as a healthy one, is also distorted. I am my body and I have been given myself therefore I am to live my life in holiness and wholeness. My body is not a machine for me to program as I wish, even if my program is healthy food and working out. If its only for my own reasons, to get results, to look good etc, it is no more an adequate appreciation of my body than gluttony.
Food for thought. Yum.

..And a story about a toilet.
Remember my two cups of coffee? Well, I sure did about 3 hours later. My tummy had been rumbling but I was watching, feeding, and entertaining a 6 year old and a 3 year old, so there was little time for bathroom breaks. When I had finally gotten the kiddos to bed I decided that it would be necessary for me to use the bathroom in the parent's bedroom as the downstairs toilet had refused to flush earlier. After I was 'done' I flushed and it became immediately apparent to me that the water was in fact rising, and quickly.

My father once told me that if I ever found myself in such a situation (though I'm sure he didnt have this one in mind) that I should find the knob on the bottom of the toilet and turn the water off. And he would have been proud because I did remember, though about 2 minutes too late.

And so, I found myself standing with one hand in the top tank pulling the chain and the other hand trying to save rugs, toilet paper and tampons from their inevitable destiny of being soaked. After some time, I got everything somewhat dry and comforted myself with the fact that they would not be home for a few hours and that things would be much less damp by then. It would all just be a funny story.

As I walked downstairs to put the soaking wet towel in the laundry room however, I heard keys in the front door. They had come home early from the concert and I would have to tell the truth.

"If it had been any other couple" I explained, " I would probably be pretty embarrassed right now, but you guys are so great Its really no big deal"

And of course it really wouldn't have been a big deal if at that moment I hadn't looked down and noticed that in the rush and rumble of it all I had forgotten to button my pants and buckle my belt. So, there I stood, red face and pink underwear for all the world to see.

In the end they though it was hillarious and apologized for their faulty toilets. It's really too bad that these people are atheists because I think that would have been an opportune moment for me to reference the humility of the Lenten season.