Mindful Consumption

I am reading Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Creating True Peace, and in it he outlines five mindfulness trainings. The fifth training helps us be mindful of what we consume, and in particular, teaches us not to consume alcoholic beverages and to abstain from eating meat. Now I've seldom had a problem with alcohol, I only abused it twice in my life when I could not sleep. And eating meat is something I've gone back and forth about. I tried being vegetarian for about a month or so, and it was too difficult. My husband wasn't on board, and it was difficult to find vegetarian options out to eat.

But in reading this book, I am reminded of one of the reasons not to consume alcohol or meat- grains. Untold amounts of grains, which could be used to feed starving people throughout the world, are used every day to produce alcohol and to feed livestock. Who is drinking the alcohol and eating the livestock? The fortunate ones, people with wealth. They (we) do so without giving a thought to the waste of food that could be distributed among the poorest.

My father was an alcoholic. He wasn't a belligerent drunk; he was actually very entertaining when he'd drink. He was functional, still able to get up and go to work every day. But the real toll the alcohol took on him was on his body. I never followed in his drunken footsteps thankfully, nor did I smoke, seeing the damage it did to him. But we never gave a thought to where the alcohol came from, how it was made, and what a better use of resources would look like. Now the cigarettes I have no patience for; they are toxic from beginning to end, from production to ashes. But regarding alcohol, I've been rather neutral. I considered the effects of the alcohol on the person, but didn't consider what goes into the production of alcohol. There is nothing redeeming about it.

This Saturday, my husband and I will be meeting up with his coworkers at a brewery for lunch. I was planning on having a good beer with my lunch, but now I'm not so certain I want to do that. I am hoping my self-control will kick in and I won't give in to the desire to try a good craft beer. I really want to do the right thing.

I have not had alcohol in over a year due to my medication, but seeing as I am weaning off the medication, I was planning to give it a try. Hopefully, I will be able to abstain. But this is where things get sticky. Even if I don't purchase alcohol at this event, I will still be contributing to the production of alcohol by eating the food at the brewery. I suppose it's the lesser of two evils. 

In the book, Hanh writes that to make one glass of rice wine it takes a whole basket of rice. I don't know how much hops or wheat goes into each glass of beer. And it never occurred to me that all the grapes that go into a glass of wine could feed hungry people instead. I'm on the fence about it, still. St. Paul in one of his letters to Timothy writes about taking a bit of wine as an aid to the stomach. And wine is produced for communion as well. So it can't all be bad. I think for me, grape wine is the exception. Beer and rice wine, well, we can do without those.