The Game and Gluttony

Day 52: The Game and Gluttony

The deadly sin of Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

I had a chance to join the last @wildcat meeting and wow, these are some of the brighest and most passionate human beans I ever had the opportunity to interact with :grinning:

Our last zoom call was centered on the topic of Biology Brain Body Nutrition (name pending), and it centered around the intersection of science and the foods we eat. An insurmountable amount of great discussion was thrown around, and here are some of my favorite takeaways:

The Game

“The Game” is my shorthand notation representing the societal norms most people aren’t even consciously aware of. Just like any game, there are rules, objectives, and clear winners and losers. Most normal people like us stand on the losing side.

The Losing Side

I start with this video as the beginning of my argument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VAZmcJ6_50

What started out as a simple “how to avoid being nickel-and-dime’d” because a lot more sinister if you really dwell on why this is happening:

• Why is the grocery store and its inventory organized the way it is? Why are these sections shuffled around from time to time?

Those two questions alone open up a whole can of worms, but no matter the answers, the losers are clear-cut:

• By opting to buy more pre-packaged and ready-to-eat food, our bodies suffers from the sheer amount of artificial substance inserted to keep them “fresh”
  • not to mention the amount of fat and sugar laced in comfort food
• By opting to buy more pre-packaged and ready-to-eat food, our wallets suffer as we pay for convenience to “save” our time after long days of work. Is taking this shortcut really beneficial to our bodies and “saved” time? What are we doing this all this extra time? Are there ways we can manage our time more effectively so we can always enjoy homecooked food instead?
• By opting to buy more pre-packaged and ready-to-eat food, it creates more package waste, so the earth suffers, and our future generations will feel the brunt of our neglect.

Circling back to the first point: if our bodies suffer because of our neglectful shopping habits, who profits? Certainly not us.

It’s become increasingly clear who the losing side in this “game” is.

Why Should We Care?

Our bodies are quite often treated as an afterthought: only after we make terrible, irreversible decisions do we see the value in the common sense we long neglected. Our bodies are the only vessels anchoring us to the physical world, and it runs based on the fuel we have at our disposal. Other developing nations struggle with having enough food to eat, yet in developed countries like the one I reside in, we struggle with the abundance of it.

In theory, all we need to go home, make our own meals, and eat in moderation. Why can’t we do something so simple?

Easy. Because “the game” set all the rules to make sure we lose as often as possible.

mtfallsVR and Gluttony

Admittedly I have long been neglectful of what my body truly deserves as its fuel source. I have the opportunity to choose to live a healthier and less wasteful life, but time and time again I have failed. Hilariously enough, the trigger for me to start taking this seriously was reframing the problem: I hate playing “games” I have no say in, and especially hate being a loser in those games. There are several other elements of “the game” that I’m started to getting increasingly frustrated at (higher education and financial literacy being at the top of this list), and it’s started to kick the gears into motion to try and do something to no longer let “the game” be played uncontested.

@mtfallsVR <- let’s make a VR experience to show us the The Game and Gluttony :smiling_imp: Nobody likes being a loser, so let’s make sure the players lose so hard that they will want to win again.

@homeroom11 @dragon @wildcat @michellebasey @sabweld @chrispawar @philkastelic @laurasanto @lansoffer