“Ice cream is the original soul food.”–Lexie Saige“Live simply that others might simply live.”–Elizabeth Seaton
On a day retreat I attended in LA this year, the facilitator, a Sister of Notre Dame, said something about the Eucharist I had never considered before. “Why did Jesus give his disciples bread and wine?” she asked rhetorically. “Because Jesus wanted them to have what they needed–bread–and he also wanted them to have pleasure, life to the fullest–as represented by the gift of the wine. Christ wants that for us too. Extravagant joy and fun and pleasure. We shouldn’t be pushing the beauty of this world aside–Jesus didn’t; we should be experiencing life to the fullest like Christ did!”
This profound interpretation of the Last Supper is too-often employed as a selfish justification for my summertime ice-cream addiction. I love ice cream. I could eat a single scoop sugar cone of Molly Moon’s salted caramel ice cream every day from June to September. I really could. “This creamy, cool cone is a celebration of life,” I tell myself, “Life to the fullest, right? Well I’m pretty sure life doesn’t get much more complete than this…” I really think crazy things like this when I am intoxicated by great ice cream.
I’ve been thinking of fasting from the ice cream addiction for a week. Yes, a week (baby steps, okay? Everyone’s gotta start somewhere…). I have not abandoned my Christian philosophy of “Life to the fullest,” but I have begun to feel the tension of my excessive indulgence amid a world where so many people don’t have what they need. What if I passed the $7 I spend on ice cream to one of the many local charities that struggle in this difficult economy? That money could satisfy many more stomachs than the solitary one it’s been serving. If Jesus wanted everyone to get what they need, then I have to be a part of making that happen. My devotion to this frozen treat need not blind me from the fact that many people don’t have the bread they need, so I can scale back on one of the many “wines” I enjoy.
Next week I’ll give an update on this summertime simplicity experiment, my mouth watering and all.
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