At the beginning of the year the church that I attend practices a fast. Generally it involves to abstain of consumption of food for a period of time, usually 21 to 40 days. Somehow it is believed that God will look upon us and move His hand and help us in our weaknesses or respond to specific requests that we might have. Although at this time I might not have a request to the divine I want to participate in a more personal way, a way that I can relate to.
Abstaining of food is a hard task, not eating willingly requires some kind of commitment specially when you live in a society that encourage you to eat as much as you can and when you are in a economic situation when you are able to eat as much as you want, as often as you like.
I wondered what would it be like if I had a determined ration of food, something that I couldn’t decided for myself that somehow it was given to me, with no portion control, no option for “seconds” or big serving sizes.
I thought, what if I have a can a day of food, what if I only eat a can of soup a day, every day for the next 21 days. I think about people around the world that this might be their situation, eating rice and beans for years, days and days of the same, or knowing that today we will eat potatoes the same as yesterday, the same tomorrow. What would happen to the way I live and relate to the world around me, if I was fed the same food for a long period of time.
So this is my one can a day project.
My ration of food during the day will consist in 16 oz of soup without any meat, a slice of bread a table spoon of natural peanut butter and cup of milk.
Probably way too much food if I want to resemble the diet of a less privilege person.
Also I have set some other ground rules that doesn’t involve food but might be helpful for spiritual purposes. Hopefully I will learn something positive.
