Tomatoes

Well it's official ... there's a lot of food in America. In the vast food aisles you experience an overwhelming amount of choice - just how many different varieties of chopped tomatoes/tamateoes do you need?

Consumerism is the norm here - no bacon on your burger - no problem! You want grilled chicken with our vegetarian pasta? No problem! What about extra fries with our Weight Watchers special - no problem! As long as you can pay, you can have whatever you want. I wonder what that does to a nation, being able to get whatever you want when you want it? Maybe its a good thing - everyone's individual desires are accounted for, so each person is validated and accepted. You can be whoever you want to be here and nobody bats an eyelid.

Yet today America's political representatives are wrestling on the Hill - they're trying to balance the American way of life with the American reality of a huge deficit. It turns out you can't have it all - that's hard to swallow.

Maybe life lived only for our desires with little consideration of their impact or the needs of fellow human beings isn't that fruitful after all. In the bountiful tinned tomato aisle the crushing question buds - how much of this food never fulfills its God-given nature to nourish and strength a human being? How much of it cloggs up the creaking earth as land-fill held captive in an tin?
I wonder what would happen if we all made some different choices? Like, if all the people in DC agreed to only buy one variety of tinned tomatoes? Or if for every tin they bought for their family, they bought a second tin for someone less fortunate?

What culture challenging choices can we make that would produce tables of kindness, generosity and love where we can feast together?