Day 25-Encounters

Weight-158.5

This afternoon I got a chance to go back over to the Rock River Valley Food Pantry. The goal of this visit was a little bit different though, this time I was interviewing some of the clients. I was lucky enough in the short time that I was there to meet Dennis and Mary. They were both kind enough to share their stories with me, and they offered some good insights into the problem of hunger in the Rockford area. The thing that really stood out to me was how different their situations were. I don’t why I didn’t see it before, but when I left the pantry I took looked around the lobby, and noticed the variety of people that were there. People of all races and ages. There were those who were used to eating regularly and were just feeling the pinch this week and those who depended on food the pantry to help them survive.

Nothing brings concepts to life like reality itself. I could sit on my computer all day and study the different factors that contribute to hunger worldwide, but it totally different to sit and talk with someone who is dealing with hunger and live life with them for just a moment. There is no one I know who gets this concept more than my friends Erin and Alicia. They are women of encounter. They do not just sit and study the problem they embrace the people that it effects the most.

During her senior year of college, Erin would pack up sack lunches and take them down to the Loop in Chicago. She would walk around and hand out these lunches to folks who were sitting on the street, and as they ate, she would talk to them. They would share with her their stories, hopes, and dreams. And all it took was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

My friend Alicia wants to open a hotel for the homeless someday. She doesn’t just envision a room with bunk beds where guys come to sleep. Instead she sees a place where those without homes are treated with respect and dignity. Last semester she attended school just outside of Chattanooga, TN. She is not going back this semester, but she said the thing that she will really miss isn’t her friends, it is the conversations with the homeless folks downtown.

For some people encounters are nerve wracking because they force us to move outside of our comfort zone. They ask us to become a part of someone’s life for a time. I have to admit that these encounters even make me nervous at times. But when you overcome your nervousness, you realize these interactions are worth it. They make us more human. They open us up. And I have to believe they draw us closer to the divine.

Day 24-Tunnel Vision

Weight-159 lbs.

As hard as living on a cup of rice a day was, it really had its advantages. It gave focus to my life and helped me not to worry so much about problems that would normally bother me. Living a hand to mouth existence is difficult to explain. So much of your energy is focused on getting something into your mouth that things like strengthening human relationships fall by the wayside. You become less concerned about things like social rejection, hurt feelings, and the like because you are in a single minded quest to keep yourself alive.

The Bible tells a story about such a thing. At the center of the story is a man who while traveling gets robbed, beaten and left for dead. Two religious leaders walk by, but ignore the guy dying on ground because they are in such a hurry. But then the social outcast of the story passes by. This man, who is despised even by the man dying on the street, is the only one that will help the man in need. He even goes so far as to pay for the guy’s hotel room and medical care. The Samaritan winds up becoming the hero and is the symbol of what it means to really be a good neighbor. But I think we aren’t giving the religious leaders enough credit.

A study was done a few years ago where seminary students were asked to perform a task on the other side of the campus. Each group was given a different time period in which to complete the task. Along the different routes to the building, the researchers had actors pretend to be in trouble.  The goal was to see who would stop for those in trouble and who would not.  What the researchers discovered was that those who had more time to complete the task were nearly 6 times as likely to help out someone who was in trouble than a person who was in a hurry.

The two religious leaders in the story were doing something that we all would do, if we were presented with the choice. Every human being has the potential for a tunnel vision type mentality that forces them to see only what they want and need, completely ignoring everyone else. While this is a great tool for survival it is a terrible development for community. The horror of the situation is true no matter if you are a powerful CEO or a guy on the street holding a cardboard sign. But, this feature of human evolution can be really devastating for someone who is hungry. Not only are people dealing with all the maladies that come from being hungry, it also causes people to shut themselves off from the community around them so that they can work only on finding food.

And in a weird twist of fate it might be better that way. If we ignore the poor and the hungry anyway isn’t it better that they begin to zone us out too? Or maybe it would all be better if things were another way? So take some time today and slow down. Head over to the small steps page and consider how you might help someone who is being forced into tunnel vision.

Day 23-Everything Comes Down to Poo

Weight-157 lbs.

I knew it was going to happen eventually I just didn’t expect that constipation would be so painful. Yes today’s post is about poop. The poop that you have and in my case the poop that you don’t. When I went and saw Bethany, the third year med-student who was going to look after me during the fast, she said that I would experience some major constipation. I figured my body wouldn’t leave anything behind if I was only consuming a cup of rice a day so I wasn’t really shocked to find that she was right.

But the problem isn’t that I wasn’t going to the bathroom. Most people have a bowel movement anywhere from 3 times a day to 3 times a week depending on things like the amount a person exercises, the amount and type of food one consumes, or the use of laxatives. No, the problem wasn’t that I wasn’t going, the problem was what happened when I actually went which happened yesterday at a rest stop along I-39. I will leave out the graphic details, but let me just say that it was painful.

Constipation and the ultimate pain that it causes just seems to add insult to injury. As if hunger isn’t horrible enough with the hunger pains, the slowing of the mind, the general lethargy, the inability of the body to heal itself, the dizziness and the sickness which will ultimately kill you. To all of this is added the pain that comes from having to pass a stool the size of a baseball.

When I was reading about constipation on Web MD it said that those who are most effected by constipation are people in rural areas, cold climates and the poor. So knowing that the type and the amount of food can effect how often someone has a bowel movement, is it really any wonder that the poor are one of the groups suffering the most from constipation? I wish there was some nice quip or message of hope to end today’s post on, but there is not. Only another way that hunger is much bigger and meaner than a little hunger pain.

Day 22-A Peace of Food

Weight-159 lbs.

When I graduated from college, one of my professors gave me a book by a scholar named J.D. Crossan. The book was full of quotes from the gospels along with accompanying images from 1st century Christianity. In the book Crossan asserts that the 3rd most common thing that we find Jesus doing after teaching and performing miracles is eating with people. And its true Jesus is eating all the time. In fact some of his enemies wind up harassing him, because he and his disciples are eating so much with so many different types of people. Jesus uses lots of food imagery even going so far as to call himself bread.

But food plays such a major role in the Bible, because food plays such a major role in our lives. It is everywhere, and I was reminded of this all the more today as my friend Carrie celebrated her 25h birthday. I traveled down to St. Louis to celebrate with her and what did we do…we went out to dinner. When we got back to her apartment, chips and cake were immediately brought out for the party guests. Later on in the evening I then joined two other friends at a bar and even after having a full dinner and cake, both my friends and I still ordered something to eat with our beers. Food is such a central part of the human experience.

When we are happy and celebrating…we eat. When we are lonely and depressed…we eat. When we want to make an impression…we take people out to eat. When we want to make peace…we eat. It is my understanding that in middle eastern culture to eat with someone is to make peace with them. By sharing a meal with someone you are extending to them a hand of friendship. By providing sustenance to your enemies body you heap coals of kindness upon him and stay his hand. I guess, it would be nice if this were the case in America too.

We spend so much money on our defense budget, but I wonder what would happen if we spent some of that money on meals. What kind of peace would it bring? What kind of celebrations could that food be the center of? What kind of wounds would and ice cream cone bind up. If we look within our own life we see the importance of food as a social lubricant. Wouldn’t it be great to extend the same kind of joy that we have to someone else? We know that food is an important part of the human experience. Today let’s try and make that important thing accessible to all. Let’s find a way to all sit at a table together.

Day 21-Debrief

Weight-155.5

I talked to my friend the news anchor yesterday and told her I had started eating again. She got this shocked look on her face and said that she was going to go into the station and tell everyone that the hungry man was eating. She said they might have to do and expose.

The thing about the scene, is that this is the closest thing that I have gotten to a negative response so far. Everyone else that I have shared the story with has been nothing but gracious and understanding. I think that means that they get it. One of the greatest dangers in the midst of this whole thing is that people wouldn’t be able to see past the fast, to the real reason why I was fasting. I was scared that people would look at my experience, but not think critically about the experience of global hunger.

I’m sure that when this whole thing is over and I begin the process of debriefing from it, I will wind up looking at it and not feeling wholly fulfilled. Whether that be because I didn’t raise enough money, or because I didn’t get the word out enough. Whatever it may be I hope that it will get me to think about what I can do next. I don’t feel like I’m at the end of this road yet. I don’t even feel close which is a good place to be as I move into the last week.

Day 20-Right Time, Right Place

Weight-155.5 lbs.

I can’t remember what the movie was, but I do remember the quote.  “Some men are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them.”  Some people are just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and have the foresight enough to see what could happen if they take a hold of an opportunity.  I kind of feel that way about this initiative.  Not that I am great or anything, I just am just in the right place at the right time, and have been blessed enough to be surrounded by a lot of great people.

When I went into work last night I wasn’t expecting to do much.  In fact, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to do much.  My friends were coming in to the restaurant to hear the band that was playing and I was hoping to spend some time with them.  But when one of the servers came in late because he was sick, we quickly changed positions so I that I got to pick up some tables and make more money than what I would have otherwise.  It was hard though.  I have been serving for a few months now, but most of my experience is serving on slow nights where I only have to hold down 6 bills at most.  Last night I had 20 different tabs open at one point.  It was crazy, but when I finally got into a groove it was a lot of fun.  I didn’t expect to be serving.  I didn’t expect the stress.  And I really didn’t expect to find that much joy in it.  But I did.  I was in the right place at the right time and it paid off. 

In being a part of this initiative I have discovered that this is true in many aspects of our life and that there are more right places and right times than what we think there are.  There are 800 homeless people in the city of Rockford on any given day.  That means that there 800 different opportunities to deeply affect someone’s life just by treating them with respect and dignity.  Count the number of children you have and you have that many opportunities to affect someone’s life today.  For those of you who are participating in Sharefest, you are in the right place at the right time to change the lives of elementary, middle school, and high school students in the Rockford area.  For those of you who made a donation to Heifer International during this initiative your were in the right place at the right time to change the life of an entire community.

We want to make these right time right place moments monumental and scarce, but they are not.  But they are filled with great power and can change the course of humanity.  The greatest truth in the world is that to God we are not only born great, but we continue to have greatness thrust upon us.  What will be the choice you make today?  Will you see all the greatness that is being bestowed upon you or not?

Day 19-That funny feeling inside

Weight-156.5

The gyro and fries from the day before were really good, but I wound up paying for it today. All day long I was dogged by the constant feeling of an upset stomach. I decided it would be a good idea to watch what I ate the rest of the day. I didn’t want to over do it on my first full day eating, and I did really well until I got to Mark’s campsite for small group. I had a little too much to eat and my stomach started doing back flips. I do not want to offend, but I have spent more time sitting on the toilet over the past 24 hours than I have in the past 24 days. My body is still trying to find an equilibrium, it is still trying to get used to the new food that I am throwing at it.

The stomach has a short memory. When you remove something from your diet, your body will jump to attention and try to compensate for the loss. But when you are finally able to reintroduce the element back into your body, the body fights it with everything that it has even though it was once a regular part of your diet. That is why it is always important to reintroduce things slowly. Your body just develops these natural patterns.

These natural patterns are something to look out for. This is why it might be a little more difficult to feed a hungry person here in America than it is to feed a hungry person elsewhere. The diets are different. The American diet includes higher quantities of protein and fat while many diets in developing nations center around carbohydrates. That is why going to an all rice diet was so difficult for me, because my body was not used to ever being on straight carbs. I lacked protein, one of the central parts of an American diet. My body knew that it was missing something it just couldn’t remember what. But now that it has been re-introduced my body is slowly discovering what it was needing all along.

There is just something about doing something for someone else that fills us with joy. It is indescribable really. But so often in my life it is hard to make the time and resources available to help others. I think in this case we kind of operate like our bodies and food. We were made to live in community with each other and with God, to not live for ourselves, but instead to live for others. But at some point that idea got removed from our diet and we started attending only to ourselves. While we might have a difficult time changing our patterns, ultimately when we begin living for others we get this funny feeling inside. I think it comes from returning to the true reality of how this world is supposed to work. Coming back to what our diet really is. It may seem like the wrong choice at the time, but our spirit will thank us later.

Day 18-The Final Defeat

Weight-155.5

I woke up sore. My shoulders, my back and my arms were on fire from carrying shingles up and down the ladder the morning before. As I opened my eyes and began to take in some initial impressions of my health status, I realized it was going to be a bad day. When I got up the room began to spin, but the feeling soon passed and I was able to start working on preparations for school in the fall.

By mid-afternoon my body was sapped of all the energy that it could muster. I hadn’t eaten anything at all that day because I just wasn’t hungry enough to bring myself to eat any rice. But by late afternoon, knowing I was going to have to go into work, I realized I had to eat something and so I prepped some rice and ate voraciously, saving just a little bit for later on.  My limbs felt heavy as I got dressed for work. Even small movements were exhausting and painful. Work was hard enough normally without having to deal with physical weakness and dizzy spells.

I was happy to discover that there were only a few people who showed up for the party I was working on. It was easy work and I was out early, but the adrenaline which had helped to push me through work, petered out the minute I walked out the back door. I called up my friend Sandy and asked if we could talk for a bit. She obliged me and I headed over to her house. Not since day 4 had I felt like this and I didn’t know why. I had balanced out my electrolytes, I had eaten something, I had taken all my vitamins, but I still felt terrible.

When I got over to Sandy’s house, I told her how I was feeling; and she told me to eat. I said no. I had agreed to not eat for 30 days. But the longer I sat there and the longer we talked I was less and less sure of why I was not eating. All I could hear in my head were the voices of those who supported this endeavor telling me how proud they were of me for undertaking such a journey. My mind went back and forth trying to decide what to do. Could I possibly do more if I did eat? If I did eat did that really mean that the initiative had to end? Why do I get to eat and others don’t?

A bag of Kettle cooked Lay’s Potato Chips were sitting on the table in the dining room. I could see them from where I was sitting in the living room. And as these questions whizzed through my mind and as Sandy and I continued to talk I began to day dream about putting one of these chips into my mouth. Until finally round about midnight I jumped up from my chair ran into the dining room and started eating the chips. One after another. I had never tasted anything that good before, and after I had some chips I went and got a gyro and fries from Uncle Nick’s because it was still open (poor choice in retrospect). And I ate and was satisfied and it was so good, because as I ate it was as if I was receiving new life. My aches and pains began to recede and my mind became sharper almost instantly. It was amazing to see what food could do.

And so now I am faced with a dilemma. How do I continue the initiative? What steps do I have to take to help bring this same feeling to others who don’t get to eat? I want to make it perfectly clear that the initiative will continue, that money can still be donated to Heifer International, and that I will still be posting everyday till the end of the 30 days. But today I need your help in two ways. First, I need some help giving direction to the initiative for the last 11 days. Please reply with ideas you have about things I can do to make the end really dynamic and worthwhile to the cause of fighting global hunger. Second, I want you all to understand the surpassing joy of eating when you haven’t been able to. 1 out of every 10 households in the US has to skip a meal or meals during the day. Today I challenge you all to skip a meal, or skip two meals and then eat something later on tonight. Make mental notes of how you feel throughout the day and what the experience is like when you finally do get to eat something. I guarantee it is going to be amazing.

As I sit here and write this morning I do not feel guilty or sad about breaking my fast. Rather I am all the more excited about what lies ahead as we all continue to dream big dreams and hope beyond hope together.

Day 17-Food

Weight-153.5 lbs.

I feel like I should warn you…this post has absolutely no moral fiber of any kind. It is just a rant or maybe it would best be called a passionate cry for food. I am getting hungry. I can’t take rice anymore. I put it into my mouth and I want to vomit. Someone asked me today if I would ever be able to eat rice again and the answer is probably, but certainly not plain rice. There are only so many things you can do to a substance without adding calories to it. I just want something else…something more substantial.

Today I have thought a lot about the food I want. I have been creating lists in my mind of things I want when this is all over. Lists like the top five restaurants I want to go to or the the first thing I’ll eat. Generally a greasy bacon cheeseburger, with fresh lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, avocado, chipotle ranch dressing, and barbecue sauce with a side of chili-cheese fries and a large chocolate malt is all I can think about. But there are other things that I dream about to. A chocolate cake donut covered in chocolate fudge, a taco or enchilada maybe, a banana, or a fresh salad with ranch dressing and croutons. But today the one thing that I have wanted most of all is a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. I think this might be the best option as a first meal when I come back to a regular eating pattern. And the best part is, it is sweet.

It is hard to understand why I put myself through this kind of grief to describe this food in such detail, but I need to do it every once in a while. It helps me focus and helps me work out some of my inner demons. But it sure does make my mouth salivate more than Pavlov’s dog after hearing a bell.

Bread for the World Celebrates Lobby Day Today

Join people from all over the country who are walking the halls of Congress on Tuesday, June 17, to speak up for hungry and poor people.

During Bread for the World’s annual Lobby Day, hundreds of hunger activists from across the United States are visiting their members of Congress, asking them to increase funding for poverty-focused development assistance– real programs that can make a significant contribution to improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. Learn more about poverty-focused development assistance.

Let your voice be heard, too. Please call your members of Congress on Tuesday, June 17, and ask them to increase poverty focused development assistance by $5 billion in the fiscal year 2009 budget. Use this special toll-free number, and ask to be transferred to your senators’ and representative’s offices: 1-800-826-3688. Find out who your members are.

Talking points:

• In light of the recent hunger crisis, we must increase our commitment to programs that provide sustainable assistance to hungry and poor people.
• Poverty-focused development assistance is focused primarily on programs that reduce hunger, poverty and disease in the world’s poorest countries.
• An additional $5 billion will help to ensure that the United States keeps the commitments we have made to world’s most vulnerable people.