I came into the class about hunger, having followed Professor Litfin’s suggestion of not eating breakfast, absolutely starving – or what I qualify starving to be. I’m a person who eats four small meals a day, perfectly spaced out as to never feel hungry, to avoid what people privileged as me refer to as “hanger”. Before this contemplative practice, I had metaphorically rolled my eyes at them.
However, this one struck me with how little of what hunger, true hunger, really is or how it feels – and more importantly, how I’ve never felt it. Everyone jokes how college kids struggle for the first time with money, and therefore having none to buy food. “Food is the common denominator of human survival,” along with copious amounts of coffee for the college kids (Quinn, “Hunger Games”). But our “starving” is a stack of Top Ramen, takeout pizza from last week, and PB&J sandwiches. That’s not starving, not even starving for some Americans, let alone people in countries decimated economically by America’s capitalism. There is rampant “food insecurity and food deserts”, especially in Seattle, but I don’t feel their consequences (Alkon, The New Food Activism). I never worry about where my next meal is coming from.
While the other practices haven’t made the impact on me that this one did, I’m glad we do them. The bitter sweet taste of the cocoa and the connection to life’s ups and downs was cheesy, but a pleasant way of looking at life (Lecture, 4/17). It also allows the insertion ourselves into the reading and the videos, making personal connections that really cements the material in our minds. It places us in the course matter and highlights how it relates to us all, if just not directly. Once I get over myself, I appreciate them.