Nothing explains the current dilemma in America better than this quote. It is about weight, food, obesity and the diseases that go along with them, but it isn’t just about that.
In my mind excess and plenty isn’t a bad thing. The bad thing is what your mind tends to do when you have excess and plenty. What my mind tends to do is worry about keeping it all. About sustaining that world of excess. About making sure we have plenty.
But what I want my mind to do is think about those I come in contact due to that excess and plenty.
I want to worry less about the food I eat and more about being kind to the waiter who brought it.
I want to worry less about the stuff I am giving away to the local charity and worry more about being respectful and caring to the person who helps take it out of my car.
I want to worry less about thinking how some object of beauty I possess will impress others and more about how that same object can be a delight to others.
I want to worry less about the value of my possessions and more about who helped me possess them in the first place.
I want to worry less about enjoying my vacations and more about creating a vacation others will enjoy as well.
When I am in that place I am happy. It’s then that my mind, in spite of or because of any excess and plenty I have, will be focused in the right direction.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“More die in the U.S. of too much food than of too little.” – John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006, American economist and author
