Liberation Theologies Praxis-Encounter Assignment Date Due: April 10, 1997 Aaron Kreider Going Hungry Explanation For my Praxis assignment I decided to experience hunger. This could be called fasting, but in the experience I felt more hungry than like I was fasting for any particular reason. I "wanted" (well not because it was fun, but more for the experience), to go beyond being "hungry" in the typical "oh it's supper time, I'm hungry" to at least get a minor sense of long- term hunger and the psychological and physical effects that it would have on me. To be brief, I only drank water for four and a third days. Below is what I wrote while I was truly "hungry". Day 1: March 9, Sunday Being hungry absolutely totally sucks. It is not fun. The stomach rumbling and the funny tasting saliva is the worst part, a constant reminder of hunger that could easily be alleviated but for some reason you choose not to. It requires will to continue fasting, especially if doing it for a reason that is relatively weak and not compelling enough to resist the urge to give in. The desire for food and tastes that I tend to delight in, for the vast variety of options that I can choose from, (as a North American) for desert, for abundance, is quite powerful. There seems to be no sense in remaining hungry when not only could I easily eat at the cafeteria (food that will otherwise be thrown out), but also because I know that my not eating has no benefit to hungry people in the rest of the world. They would think me crazy to not eat when not only could I easily eat enough, but we have more then enough. After a while you cannot function too well. One really cannot think, and do some of the things that you want to do. For example try reading and writing a research paper (*I was reading and taking notes for a twenty page paper on Dorothy Day*). Hunger drags the body down and one cannot face up to daunting tasks. Day 2, Monday The hunger and stomach grumbles are more abated. I feel very very calm. Problem is that I am generally too calm to be motivated to do hard intellectual work. I'd hate to have to solve a tough math problem now. I've got the tingles, though not too bad yet. A sign of low blood pressure or something like that. It is likely due to the entire body slowing down. I'm getting a little cold, but not too much yet. I'm actually able to work at a decent rate (*on the research paper*). A long night of sleep helped with that. I really hope the poisons in me are getting severely purged from this fast! I still find it hard to keep going and maintaining the fast. I cringe at the mention of food. I stood up after lying down reading for 2.5 hours last night and felt like I wouldn't be able to stay standing up without collapsing, but I did manage. Day 3, Tuesday It seems like the stomach grumbling and hunger has stabilized. I cannot figure out why I occasionally burp. My low blood pressure (*or whatever it is*) seems constant too. One thing is just thinking about one of out of several hundred possible kinds of food, leads me to really really want to eat it and pig out. Just reading the word "donut", or even reading about people eating bread and water in prison gives me images of fresh bread that would be so delightful. One thing about not eating, is one realizes that there are so many things that I am not eating. I would normally face a huge selection of stuff at the cafeteria, and as a North American I am use to massive diversity. That said, rice or potatoes would do fine as well. Pretty much anything that I don't hate eating I would eat, if I could do so without breaking this fast which I'm determined to continue for four days. I wonder if fasting would be easier if I normally didn't have so many options to look forward to, if I viewed food as sustenance rather than pleasure. I really miss the pleasure aspect. I have an overwhelming feeling that I don't want to do anything, especially work, other than eating! Day 4: Wednesday Today I was officially fasting as a part of PAX's CPT month long solidarity fast. It didn't feel like that though. It felt more like the same hunger from the past several days. By now I've started to become rather lazy and inefficient, despite my better efforts to work hard during Spring Break. I've been sleeping 10 hours a day among other things... Day 5: breaking the fast on Thursday I've been looking forward to eating for a while. Breaking fasts is always fun, unless you do like I did once and eat lots of ice-cream. There are some things that you should not eat right a way if you haven't been eating for a while. Otherwise you will get a nasty "hard feeling" in the stomach. I got up for breakfast, which for Spring break is rather extraordinary and there were a total of three others there. My experience with eating a lot of food, rather than easing out of a fast, are quite positive. I think chewing food helps, and I was able to switch from eating zilch on Wednesday to average size meals without more than minor stomach discomfort. Post-Hunger Comments I think that I am over-affected by the power of food. It's likely psychological. Normally I enjoy eating and look forward to meal times. Maybe it wouldn't be so if only I had a lot less variety to choose from, but instead of a subsistence source, food is more of a sensation and a source of pleasure in our society. The post-fasting experience leads straight down the path to gluttony in the short term, at least on a moderate scale. Firstly there is a psychological desire to eat practically everything, to once again experience all of the tastes and flavours of food that I've missed. Then there is a "fear of hunger" or a sharp recollection of what it was like to be really and truly hungry every time you are late for a meal. I'm also going to swear that my saliva had a different taste that was distinguishable for a week, reminding me of my fasting. Obviously hunger needs to be abolished. No one should lack food. The simple answer of giving hungry people food is not the best answer, especially in the long run. It is far better for people to be able to grow their own or to have the resources (ie be paid well enough) to afford it. Governments, especially in the industrialized world, could end hunger if only they had the will to allocate resources to do so. If leaders would only experience hunger for themselves, they would not be so stubborn to end it. My religious experience of being hungry is rather mixed-up, since it was totally influenced by the fact that I was reading a couple books on Dorothy Day. I guess in times of hunger, like other times of despair, one does turn to God and cry out to make the situation more bearable. I did this a little, but not too much, because it seemed like it was more probable that I alleviate my suffering, then a miracle coming from God. I guess what I learned is that it is possible to function without eating. I was actually surprised that I wasn't in major physical pain or totally immobile after four days without food. On the other hand I did recognize that my ability to work plummeted and how difficult life would be for someone who never had enough to eat.