Fat City, What can stop Obesity?
My friend Sally posted this on her facebook and I liked it. She is one of those very few people around against whom I have BMI envy. (LOL) The initial liking of her article certainly made me feel very far away from gluttony or stress (or both)- related BMI issues myself too.
though the fact that there were countless days i found it so hard living a human life and only eating comforted but my BMI didn't get elevated (not yet!) as a consequence gave me quite a bit of survivor guilt after reading the whole thing. there are inherent differences between asian and caucasian metabolisms, just as there are inherent differences between male and female hormonal driven needs, and I am always somewhat disdainful towards those who have no insight and sympathy for their more unlucky counterparts. I certainly don't agree with the author's (thank God she is caucasian and not asian!)call to boycott comfort eating on a societal scale with the hope of punishing the obese. Just imagine a pastor in the form of an Asian uncle thin as a stick with a cholesterol reading of 7.4 and who eats a bowl of laksa and five fried chicken wings a day himself without seeing any problem with that now preaching about the newly discovered sin of obesity to his congregation... (画面太美我不敢看……）
at the end of day i am all supportive of easily accessible measures to satisfy people's infantile needs and am frustrated that our very fallen world not only does not offer more of those but is always threatening to take away existing options (eg. hospital wide smoke ban which includes its mental health precinct). as a matter of fact whether we believe in evolution or not infantile needs don't really evolve and if they can't satisfied in one way they seep out in other much more inappropriate forms of manifestation. and my views are but myopic and self-interest driven--anything that can help to keep people out of madhouses (or seeking out CAT team for TLC like drinking poison to quench one's thirst) is a blessing to this world... As the article very appropriately pointed out... "behavioural therapy" will make everyone feel better except the patient himself and hence measures up very, very, very poorly against the much condemned chips and coke.
one of the things I couldn't really get over these days is how rude Jesus actually was to his disciples. If he has been my supervisor I would have filed a formal complaint to the college a long time ago--
Dimissive impatient attitude dealing with underlings' learning needs-- Matt 17:17
Inconsistent and impulsive situation-based performance feedback which lacked objectivity -- Matt 16: 17-19 vs 23
Adverse outcome incident (+/-) Riskman for task failure without adequate prior training-- Matt 14:29
something else bothered me even longer -- despite God knowing the many mad men or women ahead in time will end up chopping off their hands and feet and gouging out their eyeballs in utter madness after reading Matt 18:8-9, He still wanted those words recorded in the Bible in all sincerity.
This is just my personal view but I think in the Christian circle there is a widespread and deep seated myth that if you do Christianity long enough and hard enough and passionate enough you will find the act of faith replacing all other earthly measures in the purpose of infantile needs gratification -- in more appropriate language perhaps "God will satisfy all the desires of your heart".
But whatever name you give it, it probably still wouldn't be a very gratifying experience on a human level.
Despite Jesus so tenderly speak of His Father looking after the sparrows in the air and the hair on your heads and the fact that humans are worth much more than sparrows (we probably all felt rather warm and fuzzy and reassured reading that bit with our own infantile human expectations set up somewhat)---
Matt 18:8-9 has been written in all sincerity and passed on... without any explicit warning that it cannot be taken too literally. No attempt has been made to cater for all its audience especially the most vulnerable.
It did not address the needs of the mad and sad and cognitively challenged at all.
If we resolve to get rid of or demonize primitive satisfactions whether it be junk food, selfies, or Candy Crush, or maybe even Candy Crush of the spiritual kind too, this world will scream all the more to be looked after and soothed like babies in all matters of importance and non-importance so that responsibilities fall onto someone else and never ourselves - medical procedures, super investments, workplace supervision, allergy information sheet, manufacturers of non-edible stuff needing to alert the general public in excessively overt ways that non-edible stuff are indeed, not for eating...
on the contrary most of the time if not all, God does not rephrase things or write very explicit disclaimers in Bibles and reduce His people to infants.
and at the same time, just like the very thick headed disciples, our own moments of lucidity and maturity are too few and far in between...
so where is the assurance of God when the desires of our hearts are nothing but infantile?
I am perplexed. Eye ball gouging especially still gets me from time to time. I still want to work this one out.
