you are what you eat...

now we've all heard that before but have we really thought about it... i mean i've said it so many times, that like any other cliche' that has become so common place that it has not only lost the truth it originally held but really almost any meaning all together it could be easily exchanged with... wa, wa, wah, wah, wah... wa, wah wa wah wah...

but when we actually think about it there just might be something there. Health professionals are continually urging us to please eat more consciously. Even the FDA has finally made an official statement, and i'm only slightly paraphrasing here. "Please know that it is totally retarded to think that eating a diet of sugar water (aka soda) preservative and processed rich food alternatives (aka, anything not found on the outer ailes of your super market), and fast food (not even really a food group, more of a "fat"group) isn't having a direct impact to your declining standards of health and overall quality of life"...
and still we relish our ability to be in denial... seeing daily headlines like

"John Doe suffered a fatal heart attack today, he was only 57" .... and inside we are like..."you can't honestly expect me to believe that it had anything to do with his diet. Okay, sure he was 75 pounds over weight and hadn't given his body the proper amount of daily nutrition since his mother stopped breast feeding... but c'mon, really... i just don't see it..."

now what does this have to do with my travels...nothing! but i was trying to get a sponsorship from frito lays or hubba bubba like that Matt guy that dances all over the world and they are passing on me being there international spokesperson... so I'm going on my soap box... (exposing them for what they really are... and to think I could have been bought off so easily... well now they have another frickin Michael Moore on their hands... big mistake... huge!

alright, actually there's more to it than that. I'm in Angor Wat, Cambodia which i could try to describe to you where it is on a map... but really, maps are so last century... just plug it into your GPS or... it's the place where they shot all the cool scenes from Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider.

Okay... so one of the similarities i have been reminded of in all ancient cultures, this one being no expection, is that animal totems have always played an important role in the royal families and high priest/spiritual leader roles... symbols of animals are used to represent or evoke certain qualities that those animals exude. many are the examples of tribal leaders having ceremonial bear claws for power, eagle feathers for regalness and ability to see the grand vision, lions furs for royal respect, the rattle of a snake for protection, and on and on it goes...

and many of these ancient societies would also have ceremonies in which the higher ups from the village would eat the meat and drink the blood of these and other animals with the same intention of ingesting the very essence that these animals and becoming more of that quality themselves and in Angkor Wat that involved drinking the blood of the King Cobra (symbolizing special power, invincibility and majesty... once reserved for kings and spiritual leaders who had dedicated their entire lives to studying the sacred texts, can now be enjoyed by every overweight, outspoken, "Beer: it's not just for breakfast anymore"t-shirt wearing foreigner with $50 to spare... but back to the point...

this type of ceremony is can also be seen in most christian traditions where part of the service involves eating bread and drinking wine, representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ. the hope again being that we become what we eat... literally.

so, is this true?... i don't know but the consistency and pervasiveness of its practice throughout history is at least worthy of serious consideration... and for the sake of appeasing myself, i'm going to ask you to look at it with me for a minute... but first a couple questions...

hint...the following answers are all animals or animal references

1. what do you call someone when you are teasing them because they are afraid to do something?
or sometimes we just make the animal sound to make our point... "balk, balk balk, balk, balk"

2. what kind of mentality do we say someone has when they won't think for themselves, and just do what everyone else does... a la... "you should break away from the ____?... or you should really stop following the ____?

3. what do we call someone who is lazy, fat, overeats, or is a jerk to women... "don't be such a ___?"

for answers please go to p. 376
just kidding
1. chicken
2. herd (as in cattle)
3. pig

top three things Americans eat
1. chicken (animal that most represents fear)
2. beef (animal that doesn't think for itself and does whatever the rest of the group is doing no matter what)
3. pig (pork) the animal that is one of the worst insults we can give someone so a whole slew of calamities

now maybe it's just a coincendence that our society is experiencing dramatic levels of fear, sloth, obesity, and lethargy... you make the call...

food for thought
j

now i gotta run, there's this great place around the corner that serves breakfast all day and i'm totally jonesin for some bacon and eggs, a double side of sausage... and maybe a cold cobra blood smoothie to wash it down : )