What Does Eating Have to do With Me?

You and I have received gifts. We have been grateful, but not always grateful enough to use our gifts well. For example, we have been provided with energetic minds and we have heard that "God helps those who help themselves. We have been told to "get understanding." We have been told that "knowledge is power" and yet we cry, "I don't know. I don't know." "I don't know" may be a good cry of humility and a good first step toward understanding, but we are not cry babies.

You have spoken of responsibility; me too. What is the nature of responsibility? Who has it? Who is responsible for our understanding? Who is responsible for our power?

My questions may seem a bit extreme, but I have often found them empowering. For example: Who do you think has the greatest power to keep me from eating poison? Who is best able to be responsible to keep me from eating poison? Who is most likely to take on that responsibility? I, for one, am willing to take prime responsibility for y eating.

Even though I seem willing to take some responsibility, I am often rather lazy and unfocused. As lazy and unfocused as I may be, I still have the power to cooperate. I have some ability to cooperate with the way of things, or God. I have some ability to cooperate with you.

I am not sure what it means to say, "You are what you eat." Still I have heard it often, occasionally from a person who seems wise. Even on my foolish level I know that if the baby has been given poison to eat, we may say she is poisoned.

I don't know anyone who wants to poison a the baby, but is the baby the only one responsible for its eating? Who is responsible for a baby's eating?

When it comes to making sure that food is safe to eat, knowledge is power.

www.foodandwaterwatch.org