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Radio 4,2 mins

Thought for the Day - 14/03/2014 - Rev Dr Sam Wells

Thought for the Day

Available for over a year

Good Morning. There’s two ways to sell food. One says, ‘Stack ’em high and sell ’em cheap.’ The other says, ‘We make you feel fresh and healthy.’ Morrison’s just announced it’s going to try to do both. It’s a challenge every supermarket chain is facing right now. This isn’t just another stray line on the business bulletin. Why? Because food isn’t just one industry among many. Food is the most important industry of them all. Eating is the way beyond all others that we take our place as human beings in relation to one another, in relation to other creatures, and in relation to the earth. Eating food together is the single most important way we discover who we are. To eat well doesn’t mean to have a full plate, to follow a recipe book, or even to scour the market stalls for in-season vegetables. To eat well means to be in harmony with the myriad chain of producers and suppliers that bring food to our kitchen, to be in communion with the variety of living things that furnish our plate, to be at peace with our own bodies, and to be in sympathy with the human beings who sit alongside us at our table. So when a supermarket says it wants to be fresh and cheap, to be high quality and big discount, it’s reflecting back to us, the customers, the paradox of our desires. We want to be in control of our bodily needs, we want eating to be just a function to be managed: so we demand cheap food that we can gobble down while we rush to the next urgent thing that’s worth more of our time, our attention, and our household budget. But deep down we know that when we’re truly at peace, there’s nothing more satisfying or more renewing than sharing a table with friend or family, and eating a meal that’s healthy for the planet, healthy for the stomach, and healthy for the relationship of the people gathered. On the night before he died Jesus gave one recommendation to those who wanted to cherish his memory. He said, ‘Eat together.’ Because in eating together we have to buy food – and in buying food we take our place in a local, national, and global economy. We have to prepare food – and that reveals the real economy of our household. We have to clean up afterwards – and that tests and renews how the relationships really work. Food isn’t just about vitamins and starch. It’s about the pattern of relationships and values that make up our lives. The way we eat reveals the way we live. If we’re eating well, the chances are we’re living well.

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