Too Much, Too Little

I was sitting at the table the other morning, bemoaning the fact that I had eaten too much the night before and the bathroom scale had reflected it. It wasn’t stopping me from eating breakfast, though. (Not much does; “most important meal of the day,” and all that.)

I turned the page of the newspaper and splayed across the top was “Famine could kill ‘hundreds of thousands'” in 32-point type. Children and adults in Somalia and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa are being killed by the famine, exacerbated by militants who won’t let aid through or simply steal it. Refugee camps in nearby Kenya and Ethiopia are filled to overflowing and running out of food.

Wow, there’s a bit of a juxtaposition. I, and the majority of Americans (two-thirds of adults, one-third of children and teens by the last count) are overweight. We’re suffering the health effects of too much food.

Even as a child I knew that “clear your plate there are children starving in [insert country name here—India, when I was a child]” doesn’t make any sense. It helps no one, including me.

So what’s the solution? How are you dealing with the horrific news of the famine? Of course, donations to organizations like World Relief and Samaritan’s Purse can help give immediate aid. But is there a better way to tie my abundance, no let’s say it, my overindulgence and reining it in to helping someone else have enough to survive?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, particularly if you’ve found a way to bring balance to this unequal equation in your own life.