Using Toilet Paper Carefully

The memories of the 2006 World Cup have begun to fade. As the intensity of the event dissipates, I find myself remembering Argentina as the most memorable team, with team brilliance exemplified by a goal preceded by 24 passes and individual brilliance showcased by Rodriguez's goal against Mexico. While the escapism was fun, it's time to think about other matters.

I wrote earlier about my reasons for calling this blog "Decide." I have made an important decision: I am eating less.

This isn't part of a starvation diet, or a fast, or anything of the sort. I'm simply eating less food because I don't need to eat as much food. When I was in the UK for ten days, I ate less than I normally do. I didn't choose to do so. It's just harder to keep snacking and eating large quantities of food in the UK. The English and the Scots aren't the healthiest Europeans, but they eat less than folks in the US of A. And they walk much more. So, as I found myself eating less and exercising more, I asked myself why I eat so much when I'm at home.

This is something my wife has been encouraging me to do for a long time. There are moments in life when we experience an epiphany, notice with greater clarity, turn the corner, or [insert your favorite phrase here]. For my first lunch after I returned home, I ate only half of my usual sandwich. I worked out that evening as well.

Then I felt hungry. I haven't felt hungry in a long, long time.

Not the kind of hunger that's debilitating, which far too many people face all too often, but a hunger that urged me to refuel. There's something very wrong when people are hungry and don't know when and where their next meal will come from. But there's nothing wrong with a little hunger to remind you that it's time to eat. That you need to eat. I've been eating on auto-pilot for a long time. For too long. I've been eating an appetizer, a main course, often with a soda and dessert and stuffing myself to the limit for every meal. It still isn't too late for me to reverse course, but my father spent his life eating on auto-pilot and it ruined his health. I'm about eating about half as much as I used to eat and exercising more often. And I'm doing just fine. In fact, after only about a month of this change, I feel better than I have in a long time.

Everyone is reminded not to waste food. Typically, this well-meaning reminder manifests itself in eating everything on your plate. Less often it results in people ordering less food to begin with. I can sense the immediate impact on my health and well-being, but I also think about the broader impacts.

I have picked up, and put down repeatedly (remember, I've only taken a few steps along my thousand mile journey) Returning to Silence by Dainin Katagiri. The first time I started to read it, I was prepared to launch myself into Buddhist wisdom. Seeking the timeless wisdom of the Buddhist masters, I came across the phrases in the Foreward:

"We can help in many ways. Using toilet paper carefully is helping others. Don't expect helping to be a big deal. In everyday life, we can help someone or something all the time."

Even before I started reading the book proper, I put it down.

Using toilet paper carefully? I wanted to change the world!!! Since then, I have contemplated the "ripple effect" of using toilet paper carefully. Less waste, less production, less energy usage, less harm to the environment...Less is more indeed. More for others who need it much more than I do.

Bumper sticker wisdom: "Live Simply so that Others May Simply Live" (Actually, I think Gandhi said this).

Yesterday, when I ordered less than my usual amount of food for lunch, I gave back two packets of honey mustard sauce. What if everyone gave back unwanted or unused sauce, or as I will do when I've taken another step along the journey, used no sauce at all? And given the state of the world today, what if we didn't keep driving around until we found that "perfect" spot right near the entrance. What if we actually walked, or used mass transit (of course, we'd have to follow Portland's example first and build effective mass transit).

Many have stated that you can't change the world; you can only change yourself, or your place in it. As for the inertial idea that time will heal all wounds, Andy Warhol said, "They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."