#223 What is Gluttony?

There is one sin that no one talks about. One sin that no one ever commits. One sin that we often consider more of a historic artifact peculiar to ancient culture than to our modern times of plenty. One sin to rule them all! No, the Lord of the Rings reference is getting a little carried away. Then again, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. So maybe there is something to this. I'm talking about gluttony.

What is gluttony? Is it even possible to commit it anymore, I mean, more than nominally with a knowing laugh, of course? The reason it's come to mind lately is that I've gone from 2 incomes for 2 family members to 1 income for 3 family members in the past year and we've had to examine literally every expense. Now with the potential for deflation (the scariest word in all of economics) looming on the horizon, my already sharp emphasis on consumption is further enhanced.

And consumption is really a key word when it comes to thinking about gluttony, if as I asked before, there even is such a sin anymore. Is there? And if so, what's the point? What's the point of it being prohibited in an age of plenty?

The opposite of gluttony, though we don't often think of it this way, is fasting, of course. But strangely that contrast only came to my mind today for the first time. If you have trouble understanding the prohibition against gluttony, start with your understanding of fasting and work backwards. If you trouble understanding the purpose of fasting, start with gluttony and work backwards.

Both are at opposite ends on the spectrum of how we relate to food. One by indulgence, one by denial. Both are unsustainable. And yet sustainability, particularly my ability to sustain financing as much food intake as my stomach desired, was one of the driving forces that led me to start examining my actions in the first place.

And so to a certain degree, I feel that I'm fasting each time I don't give my stomach the full extent of what it desires. That unmet physiological/psychological need, is essentially a fast from the satisfaction that I've voluntarily foregone. In other words, it's a form of abstinence, a denial of self.

So instead of focusing on whether your committing gluttony or whether you ought to try fasting, examine instead your relation to food. For me, it was particularly helpful to do this in the context of my financial condition and the alternate uses of those dollars I was literally consuming. Who else or what else could consume those dollars were I not to consume so much of them? For you, there may be a context that hits closer to home.