Happy New Year!

Hi, sorry to be a little late with this, but it's All Go at my house. My younger daughter is getting ready to move abroad, a HUGE and exciting event for all of us (she was very ill for a long time and this wasn't even dreamable for years) and we threw her a surprise party - great fun when it happened but a bit of a logistical nightmare, which ended up in me (on crutches) going to a supermarket on the day to get everything that had been promised but not delivered by various people! So blogging wasn't the first thing on my mind!

Anyway - last night I had a random thought which felt blogworthy - so here it is.

I was talking to my daughters and said, "The Church should be thoroughly ashamed of itself for letting the Diet Industry steal the concept of Sin."

By which I mean this: Sin is about selfishness, hatred and destruction. It is NOT about one extra sandwich, or a Snickers bar, or wanting a hot chocolate. The greed which leads us to overeat is NOT a sin. It is a misreading of our needs, a means of comforting ourselves, or protecting ourselves, or of being a Bigger (and therefore safer) Presence in the world or - God forbid, maybe we just enjoy food - which is after all an important part of life. Sometimes we eat to stuff a Food lid on uncomfortable feelings, or because the act of eating was our only pleasant part of childhood (everyone was too busy to argue) so we recreate our own little emotional food-cocoon. There are as many reasons for overeating as there are overeaters - and it's good to gain control, I'm not saying just go ahead and be obese, but...

It is an insult to the raped, abused, murdered, pillaged, slaughtered, bereaved, disenfranchised, disinherited, deceived and despairing throughout history to allow people who get fat on the misery of the overweight to call their appetite 'SIN'.

It makes me sick to think that as well as already low self esteem, people are persuaded that they are overweight (if indeed they really are) because they need to stop sinning. Because everyone knows, deep down, that sin is serious stuff.

Hitler ordered the murder over 6,000,000 people. THAT was sin.
And yes, small things too, like allowing ourselves to habitually lie, steal, cheat... they too are sins because they don't add to the overall well-being of humankind.

So if someone eats a bit too much and lets that be associated in their mind with Hitler at some level, what is that going to do to them?

Probably make them feel so bad that they reach for another biscuit...

I feel really, REALLY strongly about this, because I see so many lovely people who are convinced they would be fine a little lighter, then perhaps a little more, then maybe skeletal... and paying good money to organisations who basically exist to make them feel bad about themselves so they can rake in the money.

FOR GOD'S SAKE! (Literally)

It is not a sin to overeat. It's not a good choice - it doesn't help you to be healthy - but it is NOT a SIN! We sin in many ways at many times, I'm sure - but eating a bar of chocolate does NOT put you in a bracket with Adolph Hitler!

Get a sense of perspective, and stop paying other people to make you feel bad about yourself!

Thanks. That's better! :)