Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The qualities of nourishment. . .



Responding to a challenge issued by my youngest sister (to her six married siblings & their offspring and her parents) -- to make and distribute within the month of January more than 1,600 pb& j sandwiches to the hungry in our communities -- my wife & I set out to acquire basic provisions. Unpacking our grocery bags of Safeway whole wheat bread loaves, Trader Joe's fruit preserves, Safeway jumbo-size peanut butter, we inquired, "What are we really feeding people?"

This prompted some reflection about nourishing and the qualities of nourishing one another. Were we just making low-quality, giveaway sandwiches, without regard to the actual ingredients involved? Would we be content serving this same food to our friends or lunch guests? What would it really mean to nourish another citizen, especially one who had likely been marginalized by society and, as such, who had already suffered slights, mistreatment, prejudiced attitudes, and other indignities? What qualities characterize true nourishment? And what would it truly "cost" to nourish another?

To start with, observing the Hippocratic Oath seems fundamental: "First, do no harm." To me, this means that I would, by and large, not feed another something that I did not myself want to ingest. (I'm a vegetarian, so I make exception for others' true love and need of meat products, albeit preferring those that have been produced humanely, with regard to preserving the natural environment.) Should we, then, feed others food products that contain trans-fats (chemically-manipulated fats that are simply no good for one's heart)? High fructose corn syrup (again, not great for one's body and produced with no regard for the environment and other farmers). GMO-variety whole grains? Etc. Etc. Hmmmm... We'd have to toss the Safeway bread (high fructose corn syrup counted among its top five ingredients) and the peanut butter (hydrogenated corn oil its third component)!!

Okay, so let's turn our attention to the spirit with which we embraced this project: our intention. We intend to use this project as an opportunity to connect with the many, many transient individuals in our immediate community. We see them setting up camp under the roadway underpasses, in the brush of the bicycle greenway, in the hallways of office buildings when the salaried folks have dispersed. . . We stride by them lingering outside local eateries, panhandling on the main drag, holding up signs that implore "Hungry, please help" at busy intersections. . . We notice them sorting through dumpsters and scraping up recyclables to raise money for food. Each has a name. A story. A life line. A tale of life's twists and turns. Just like you. Just like me.

Can we then explore the notion of truly nourishing the hungry and the outcast among us, rather than simply feeding them? Can we connect with both their physical need and their social-emotional needs, as well? Is it too difficult to imagine them as a whole human being, in need of and entitled to loving attention? What is the human-to-human cost of seeing, connecting and attending to someone else's hunger? Can each of us expend more than the 50-some odd cents it costs to assemble a reasonably delicious pb&j sandwich in order to truly feed another human being?

2 comments:

  1. oh cb!

    I adore you. This is great.

    thanks for sharing, christine

    ReplyDelete
  2. awesome miss Caitlin

    ReplyDelete