Taboos

I'm currently reading a book, The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan and in it he quotes what he says is an old Cherokee legend about two hunters.  One of the hunters wasn't supposed to eat deer meat.  The other wasn't supposed to eat squirrel meat.  Some Cherokee taboos were permanent no-no's, like killing eagles, but sometimes individual Cherokee took on temporary taboos - maybe to cleanse their spirit, or because they knew, from listening to the spirit world that the taboo was important.  They went with their instincts.  The two hunters were out hunting in the woods all day.  The only things they caught were squirrels.  At night they made camp, and the guy who could eat squirrel eat started cooking it over the fire.   The second hunter, who wasn't allowed squirrel meat -  he was starving.  He just sat there clutching his stomach while his friend ate.  Finally, the first hunter started feeling guilty.  'Ah, go ahead,' he said.  'Eat some.'  But the second hunter resisted.  'It's taboo for me.  I'll get in serious trouble.  I'll probably turn into a snake or something,'  The first hunter laughed.  'Where did you get that crazy idea?  Nothing will happen to you.  You can go back to avoiding squirrel meat tomorrow.'  The second hunter knew he shouldn't, but he ate.  In the middle of the night, the second hunter woke up screaming in pain.  The first hunter ran over to see what was wrong.  He threw off his friend's covers and saw that his friend's legs had fused together into a leathery tail.  As he watched, snakeskin crept up his friend's body.  The poor hunter wept and apologized to the spirits and cried in fear, but there was nothing to be done.  The first hunter stayed by his side and tried to comfort him until the unfortunate guy fully transformed into a giant snake and slithered away.

The point of the story, according to the author, is that each of us is familiar with our own taboos and should have both the right and the obligation to follow them.

This really hit me with regard to our sharing of our weight-loss journeys.  As we expose ourselves to each other, it is important to respect each other's taboos.  To acknowledge them without judgment.  This doesn't mean, however that we shouldn't express concern when a friend makes what we consider a bad choice, but that we should be gentle in indicating that there might be a better/different way to approach the issue.  In the same regard, just because we have certain taboos, we should not expect that others must follow them in order to have success.

I'm Easily Amused ...

... According to my husband, that is.

You know you live in a university town when the local newspaper and TV news cover "move-in day"!  We also learned that the highway and feeder streets around the university had official electric signs telling students where to go, and other people where to avoid.  We've lived here long enough so that we got where we needed to go with no problems, though.  This included donating blood, with a stop at Mike's lab on the way.  I waited in the lobby break room, as is my habit, and found that the "dreaded snack machine" was no temptation!  That felt good!  I did investigate it and learned that it is now possible to use a credit card to buy snacks.  I'm glad that was not true during my years of binge eating, because sometimes the only thing that stopped me from buying multiple snacks was lack of singles or change.  Giving blood, for me, was successful, which was not true last time.  I have only one decent vein, and luckily, this time, the tech got it.  Felt more wiped out than usual all weekend, though, but I am fine now.

Eating is going well.  I successfully talked myself down from a short term temptation to eat out of boredom.  Activity, not so well.  Gotta get up off the sofa or the computer chair more often.  I appreciated the article a friend passed on concerning the need for movement throughout the day.