The perfect birthday gift #3

This weekend I celebrated another birthday. For what it's worth I am now 43 years old. What do you do to mark such a momentous occasion? I mean, come on, its hard to get all giddy and excited about middle age. Ponies and balloons really don't light my fire anymore. Someone asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I pondered this question for a while. At first I came up with all the Miss America pageant cliches: world peace, no more wars, an end to childhood hunger. Then I thought no, midlife is nothing without a crisis. What would I want that would ease that growing since of anxiety I have sometimes about getting old (do you realize in 7 years I will qualify for an AARP card!!!) In a flash of self-absorbed brilliance I came up with three perfect gifts.

Gift #3 - A Kitchen for the 24st Century For some reason I liked watching the cartoon "The Jestson's" when I was a kid. I cannot remember a single episode and the plots (assuming there were plots) escape me. What I do recall was the way the characters in the show got their food. They simply walked up to a computer, told it what they wanted, and there it was. As a child growing up in a very poor home the idea of unlimited food was fascinating. As an adult who does the cooking for my family the mere thought of a computer doing all the work is tantalizing. I want one of those machines. I mean, really, really want one.

Food occupies a weird place in my life. I love to eat, though I can be a picky eater. I prefer to do the cooking (a control issue) but can think of a million things I would rather do than be in the kitchen. Having food in the house is a reminder that I am no longer dirt poor, yet I am worried about my weight and try not to keep to much food around (at least not the fatty, sugary kind I really like).

The attraction of a 24th century kitchen, or whatever time period the Jetson's are from, is that I would not have to think about food. When it is time to eat I (control issue, again) would just tell the computer what to make and let the feasting begin. Naturally there would be tons of fruits and veggies which would lead my children to love me even more than they already do. If the meal is not good I get to blame the computer. If the meal is great I am the one who programmed it. No worries, no problems, no thinking. The only issue is whether the purchase of this computer qualifies for free shipping from Amazon. I'm guessing it might. Oh, and whether I can install it myself. I am sure I can't.

Like my time machine, this technological wonder does not exist. Which means I have to continue to think about food. Which means I have to think about where it comes from and how much it costs. Which means I have to think about all the people who don't have any food today, or not enough of it. And that is the real problem. I don't want to think about that. I don't want to remember what it is like to not have food in the kitchen. Or to have to use Food Stamps. Or depend upon grocery bags filled with donated food that other people did not want. Above all, I don't want to think about the powerlessness that comes with poverty. And my guilt that today I have enough to eat while millions of other people don't.

Being a follower of Jesus means I will not ever be able to forget about other people. Being a follower of Jesus also means that instead of feeling guilty I can be filled with hope. I believe the stories about Jesus feeding five-thousand people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. I have seen it happen in my own life. I have been witness to more than one instance when people freely shared what little they had and no one walked away hungry. There was no futuristic computer involved, just compassion, love, openness, and willingness to not to forget. So I give thanks for a wonderful birthday gift - the ability to think about food. And the desire to share it with others.