PLUNGE47

“According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 40 percent of all consumer products imported into the United States last year were manufactured in China.”  ~  CNN.com “Shoppers offered few safeguards…” 7/26/07

A few nights ago Ivy was playing with our nativity set. She put the pieces in a circle and pretended they were dancing—she was singing the hokey pokey. Of course one of the pieces dropped to the floor, which caused me to scold her—she has a little people set and is not to play with the other set… but as I picked it up I noticed the sticker. Underneath every piece of our nativity set is a little red sticker, “MADE IN CHINA”.    [I know, Ivy is cute, but she still needs to follow the rules - even if I become the heel!]

Multiple thoughts shoot through my mind. First I wondered if everything is now from China (and not just china—which by the way, none of our china comes from China, instead Indonesia. I wonder if this ticks off the Chinese!)?

But my thoughts quickly turned the set. The reality of this season is kind of crazy. We celebrate the birth of our savior, who was born into poverty and lived a life of homelessness, by purchasing “replicas” that are too nice for our three year old (even our set from China). And this is only the beginning of our purchases. There are trees and ornaments and greenery and plates and candles and … I have not even gotten to the hoard of presents…

I wonder, where is this season made? It is from heaven or is it just another creation of the world’s trade? …

A new study tested the addictive power of junk food on lab rats (Click here to go to the Washington Post article.). The subjects were given only junk food to eat—which they gladly consumed in cookie monster fashion. Later in the study some rats were given food choice, healthy food alongside junk food. Of course the rats choose the junk food, but here is the catch—anytime they choose the junk food the rat was given an electric shock. Rats who had not been given junk food quickly stayed away from the cookies and ho-hos, but the rats who had been on the junk food power diet took the shocks in stride! The animals choose junk food, even with electrical pain!

Another group of rats who had been feed only junk food were then offered only nutritious food pellets. They were so addicted to junk “the animals refused to eat, even though they were clearly starving.”

As we head into Thanksgiving—the celebration designed to gorge on turkey and pie—enjoy. But also take time to consider what you are eating. We are not so foolish to starve while refusing broccoli, but we are often addicted to  overeating. And not just once a year. I often overstuff on good meals (and sometimes Moe’s, “Welcome to stomach rupturing!”).

So the number one health epidemic in the US has become obesity… but more importantly, while we stuff others are hungry…

During our amazing human checker battle at Plunge there was some disagreement about rules—of course as the rule maker I totally disregarded those arguments… I am like a silly game dictator, all I need is a scary laugh—like Andy’s! My games, his laugh, we could rule the world, ha! Actually, a lot of people think my laugh is also strange, but once again I disregard their thoughts, because I know my chuckle is actually very joyous…

Back to checkers, I decided to look up rules for checkers. So I Google’d and found there are many variations. Some, as Robert said, allow a non-king piece to move backward during a multiple piece jump. Though some sided with me and said non-kings must always move forward—and I am sure these were the more reliable sites…

This concept—only the king moves backward—is a great illustration. Give us a little power and so often we abuse it. We allow it to go to our head and begin to think of ourselves as something special. Just as David was brilliant, the giant slayer, until he became King. Then he moved backward and there he found Bathsheba…

Of course it is not just kings, but the popular, the older students, the athletes, the brains, the rich, the… anytime we allow ourselves to believe in ourselves, we start to slide backward… (even ministers)