Much of society’s drive today centers on the notion “the bigger, the better.”
That’s true, I suppose, if you’re looking for a room to hold 100 people and so far, you’ve only found an 8x10 shed. Of course, at the moment, we’re not supposed to get more than 10 people together anyway so we can “social distance” ourselves in an effort to run off the coronavirus.
But more and more I’m being reminded that while sometimes it takes just a bit more to make things better that at the same time, less can be more.
As a nation and a people, we’ve gotten into the mindset that you need to get really big or bigger than the next guy to be successful. Moderation or even abstinence just doesn’t figure into our lifestyles very much. Just look at how many people bought a year’s supply of toilet paper a few weeks ago the first week we couldn’t get out much.
The reasons for that mindset, I think, are many.
For starters, think back, if you can and will, to when fast-food hamburger joints were coming onto the scene. Quite a big difference from today’s offerings.
For one thing, then the burgers were only 15 cents and the fries a dime. Of course, the minimum wage was $1.25 and gas was 20 cents. But beyond that, appetites — both physical and emotional — weren’t all that big, certainly not as big as they have come to be today. The burger we got then was about four bites worth, pretty much the size that’s available in what most of today’s chains call a “kid’s meal.”
At some point in the fast-food world it became a good thing, even the best thing, to “super-size” your lunch and competition was on. Catchy slogans and radio jingles, “combo deals” and similar factors contributed to the notion that we needed more food.
So instead of a reasonably sized lunch we began to consume half a cow on a bun, a bag of potatoes, and four gallons of sugar water we call tea or a six-pack of soft drinks. With that, in time, came obese folks — you can’t say “fat” anymore, even though I have personally been there and could easily slide down that slippery slope if left unattended. The results were especially noticeable among youngsters.
Other benefits to over-consumption were diabetes, high blood pressure and a host of other health concerns.
Now, please don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting we boycott the Golden Arches or your favorite local dive. Sometimes, especially in these times of not eating inside restaurants, I slid through the drive-thru myself. Rather, I’m using that part of our society to make the point (hopefully) that we don’t have to have the most of anything to be a complete and happy human being.
Long ago and far away when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in my third year as a college freshman, I won the coveted title of “Best Sleeper” in my dorm. It was generally accepted among my peers that I could sleep through anything — my alarm clock, my roommate’s, a hurricane, most of my classes, pretty much anything. The problem with that is, of course, that if you sleep late, you’re going to miss a lot of stuff, especially and including your classes.
Today I’m still a pretty good sleeper but I’m finding that less really can be more. Maybe it’s mental — that I don’t want to sleep away what’s left. Maybe it’s emotional — what’s left is and can be pretty good, especially when our country wakes up again and it’s safe to go about or business. Maybe it’s physical, that it really doesn’t take as much as it once did. Maybe it’s all three. Maybe it’s something else I don’t even recognize.
All I know is that now instead of a short six-hour nap in the middle of the day — other than after Easter Sunrise services which we didn’t get to have this year — I can get along pretty well after a brief “power nap.”
Case in point: some time ago, it fell my lot to conduct a couple of memorial services on a Sunday afternoon at two different locations some miles apart. Timing was not an issue since all involved had come to an agreement about the time of all the proceedings. What was going on for me, however, was that I was a bit pooped after Sunday morning services, which always takes energy and such out of me.
Follow that up with enough lunch to meet the need and by the time I finished the first service and traveled to the site of the second, my eyelids were heavier than they had been. When I showed up at the second site, no one else had arrived since I got there early, which in and of itself is a different animal than normal.
There followed a brief internal discussion between me and myself about how to make things better. After some more conversation and finding a patch of woods, I parked under a large oak and surrendered, hoping the internal alarm would not fail to go off. Fortunately, I awoke before it was time to start.
Amazing what a 10-minute snooze — less — can do to refresh body and soul — more — so we can go on with what it is that lies before us.
I recommend we eat less so we can be more, that we learn some of the admonition in The Book to “be content with what we have,” and in so doing take on the Army advertising slogan of yesteryear and “be all you can be.”
