Friday, October 18, 2024
Feat of Saint Luke, Evangelist
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Food
The harvest is abundant.
I’ve had two food events this week. The first one came when my doctor set me up with some injectables called Mounjaro (similar I guess to Ozempic) in an effort to get my diabetic-level blood sugar down a bit. Or a lot. He showed me how and watched me shoot myself last week, which I repeated on my own yesterday. I’ve lost a few pounds, and I notice my appetite isn’t what it was. That’s a good thing.
Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
The second event involved a fine meal at the West Union Café, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and a big plate of salad bar stuff. After we ate I bought a breakfast in advance and posted the server’s ticket on the restaurant’s PAY IT FORWARD bulletin board, beside several other tickets already pinned up there. So folks can get a free meal if they need one.
A few hours later, after we finished our drive to Evansville and spent awhile with Margaret’s sister Kay, Kay’s daughter Heather, and Heather’s daughter Morgan, I felt queasy. Andi’s family hotel room was next to ours, and after saying hello I excused myself and laid down on my lovely hotel bed.
For about five minutes.
After that I was up and down, all night long, throwing up fifteen times. And then a couple more. Filling up the wastebaskets (ugh, don’t say it!), moaning all night long. Margaret put a cold washcloth on my forehead. “Drink, drink, don’t get dehydrated.” I tried my best. Her patience blessed me, but she didn’t sleep much either. We were both very tired on Saturday morning, although I did perk up enough to visit my friend Neal at Saint Meinrad that afternoon.
I don’t remember another time when food poisoning took me out like that. Maybe it was the lettuce. Anyway, I have walked by three salad bars since then and I quickly look away. I hope my love for salad does not stay away for long. It’s my favorite part of potlucks.
My exhausted chest muscles are returning to normal. I can cough and breathe OK. And the weight I lost on Friday night has not yet returned, probably thanks to the Mounjaro.
Stay in the house with your hosts, eat and drink what is offered to you, what is set before you. And say to your new friends, “The Kingdom of God is at hand for you!”
I told my doc, “I eat to live … so that I can live to eat.” My gourmand enneagram seven personality has a reputation to uphold. Eat everything on your plate, our mama told us. Once those words were thought to be a gift, but now not so much. That mother’s life command has been my mantra. I love food. I eat everything. I eat too much of everything.
Robin Williams left us many jewels of meaningful comedy, including his reimagining of PETER PAN – the movie called Hook. I hope you remember that movie, or will see it soon. It’s a life-changer; it was for me. In an unforgettable moment around the dinner table in the midst of all the other lost boys, Robin, I mean Peter, found himself.
“You’re doing it, Peter! You’re using your imagination!!” His little friend watched him come alive, after so many years of head-aching, mind-numbing cow-towing to the world of business, where making money was ALL that mattered. Peter turned on a dime and returned to the life God had given him to start with. And food was right there in the middle of it all.
Of course I live to eat. But just as a nice new car is not and never will be THE ONE THING, neither is the food – the tasty, textured sweet and sour foods of all kinds that jump off the tables into my mouth. So it’s also always true that I eat to live. Dontcha think they blend into each other, this living and eating, like caramel and chocolate? Like eggs and bacon? Like pancakes and sausage? Like bread and wine?
In the Catholic church and others there are feast days and fasting days, and today is the Feast Day of Saint Luke. I imagine that Luke sits at a table somewhere enjoying the meal, leaping and laughing and praising God. What better way to share the story of salvation? And then at just the right time, he begins his sacred fast … to be broken in the not-too-distant future with yet another feast.
Make known to men the glorious splendor of God’s Kingdom, a Kingdom for all ages, which endures through all generations. The Lord is near to all who call on him.
(2 Timothy 4, Psalm 145, John 15, Luke 10)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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