The final night in Mexico I inhaled chips and guacamole. The resort had spread bowls of it in abundance – fresh and free.
Take a chip.
Scoop.
Delight.
And repeat.
“These are vegetables!” I declared, permitting myself further inhalation of chip after chip, crunch after crunch.
I marveled as I never filled my stomach. I just kept eating them throughout the night until at some point I fell asleep.
I did the same thing upon returning from Mexico.
I was speaking with a friend about our group’s financials and scooped chip after chip of fearful possibilities.
I inhaled each dire scenario that our deficit budget could undoubtedly bring about. I chewed each one quickly so I could wedge yet another angle into my mouth as soon as possible. I wanted to exhaust Every. Single. Chip. From the bowl.
I figured this was perfectly acceptable, even right.
“These are vegetables!” I declared. Could there be anything more wholesome and vital than the critical, ever-foundational financials!?
Why, though, does this bowl never empty?
Chip after chip, scoop after scoop, and still the bowl proves bottomless. The more I verbalized “what if” scenarios and lamented “those people” who make things impossibly difficult, the more I raced for yet another chip, another scoop. The bowl always obliged, fresh and free.
And that’s the thing…
Tomatoes, onions, and avocados –they really are good, wholesome, and fortifying.
But somehow when paired with easy scoop chips of fear we cannot help but devour the salt and concentrated calories. The nutrients go down all-the-more deliciously (and dangerously) with the salted slide.
“Oh, let fear carry the important things, and I shall eat forever!”
The problem is the next morning. The body is bloated and slower. Apathy up. Creativity down. Bodies made to stretch, lift, run, and embrace – now filled with salt and fried calories - and notably slower.
We stand just long enough to grab a fresh bowl of chips and salsa, and then we sit. We turn on the news. And wouldn’t you know it – chips and salsa. Their chips are Party Size, so we make plans to eat well into the night.