Of Rice and Men

My husband, after some reading he was doing and after HC's message at Beulah, wanted to gain some more perspective about the plight of the very poor. So for the last week, we ate nothing but rice, fruit and vegetables, and intended to give what we saved on our grocery bill toward the world food crisis. And he wants to do it for quite some time.

I'm taking the weekend off - I've already lost too much weight doing this, and I need to load up on calories (did you know that one box of PC Mac and Cheeze is 1200 calories, prepared? LUNCH!). He is also going to introduce a few foods for the weekend, to add back some variety so that Monday, when it's back to "the usual", it hits us all over again.

Because we HAVE been hit. We've learned a lot. Here are some things that have hit me most:

1. Imagine a mother cooking a meal for her kids that she knows will not be what they want, and that it will not satisfy them.
2. imagine a mother having to tell her hungry children that there is no more, that they will have to wait until tomorrow --- having to CHOOSE to ration what they have to make it last.
3. Imagine having to eat what there is --- never enough calories and energy provided --- and then walk for miles to get water that may or may not be sanitary. Would you have to limit your activity so that you wouldn't need as many calories?

Once or twice a day I decide I can't do it --- that I need to have a real meal. I rationalize and I scheme. Thankfully, and definitely surprisingly, it's my husband who says "no" and helps me continue. I'm very proud of him right now. Very proud. This is really the first time I've felt him tangibly connect with the issues that I'm so passionate about. And I wonder, in the back of my mind, where all this might lead.