Reggie: You know speaking of moaning, my stomach is starting to growl. We better go get something to eat.
Jack: We eat when I say we eat!
Reggie: Now that's bullshit, that's the last straw, all right? I want some food now. If you don't like it, you can take me to the penitentiary and kiss my hungry black ass goodbye all right? You took me out here, you've been treating me like shit when we first left and I want some food
That scene seems amazingly relevant for tonight's post. I love this image, "now that's the last straw all right?" Can we stand up together and say enough is enough? Can we say this is the last straw, and I want some "food"?
I'm past the 48 hour mark for fasting, and so far so good. I have had a few stomach growls, but overall I am not too hungry. Thank you for all the support and feedback I have gotten on this blog, I really appreciate it.
Thoughts on the physical elements of fasting: I was alert and awake and had a surprisingly productive day till about 5pm when I slowed way down. I didn't have any headaches today, and I think I was lucid and articulate during all my conversations. I have been fasting for years from sunrise to sunset without food or water, this "Islamic sytle" fast has become second nature to me, so fasting with water is a pretty nice luxury. Granted as I push past these 48hrs to the next 48 I anticipate the road getting a lot harder.
The mental elements: There is something tremendously powerful about not eating. I have gotten very used to not eating in the last two days, and seeing other people's food does not bother me too much. I noticed that a lot of the activities in my life revolve around eating or coffee. "Do you want to meet up for lunch or coffee?" or "Wanna come to my pot luck Thursday night?" I was almost a prisoner to a cycle of social eating and social caffeinating.
I feel very liberated without food, being able to say no to a very basic need has made me feel more confident about my ability to sacrifice self-interest for the sake of the community. Not that this fast has achieved anything for the community, but its purpose is one of community, so it will at least reinforce my commitment to community).
I keep coming back to this base principle of self-interest vs. communal interest. I am repeatedly told that if everyone pursues their self-interest then the best possible outcome will occur, automatically no less! Where did this concept originally emerge from, and how do we move through life not questioning it? Is this concept something that is only prevalent in business schools? I do remember learning about the book "The Selfish Gene" in Biology my junior year of college, but growing up as a child, I don't remember being taught to be selfish? Is selfishness a learned behavior?
It is surprising to me that the concept of self-interest would take such strong root in a predominately Christian country. The teaching and principles of the Bible, (in my limited experience with that text) seem to push a believer beyond oneself, into a spiritual realm where success is measured by how you help other people. Islam seems to endorse the same concept, constantly pulling the human away from the human-centric view of the world.
Okay I have really lost steam here, this post took me two hours to write, so that might give you some indication of the effects of fasting.
Lots of people have been asking why I'm fasting so I am throwing this paragraph at the bottom of all my posts for the rest of this week so people can find out why I am fasting
repost from March 31st: Purpose of the fast
Next week I begin a fast. I join, granted late, the 4,000 others who fasted this week...http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/why-were-fasting/?src=me&ref=general
I take Beckmann's point of view, this is not about my fasting for a week, it is about justice and leaving off the distractions that make it easy to justify cutting programs for the less fortunate while we increase benefits for the ultra wealthy, “You can’t have real religion,” Beckmann said, “unless you work for justice for hungry and poor people."
I hope this fast will connect me very closely with God, will make me humble, will remind me that I am not self-sufficient. "Fasting is prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those before you so that perhaps you may develop awareness of God." Taqwa-awareness or consciousness of God is to accept God as omnipresent, merciful, the sustainer, the provider, the omnipotent. These things, I hope I will learn in my fast, and that it will give me a steely resolve to fight for justice, and end the crazy deficit cutting, that makes the poor suffer while we increase tax breaks for the ultra wealthy.
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