I recently watched Food Inc. Here is my three-word reflection: regretful but educated. The glass-half-empty version is “educated but regretful”, but I’m feeling positive today. (Probably the wine.) My best friend encouraged me to watch this documentary about the truth regarding food production in the US. While I commend its efforts to unveil the truth, I also completely resent it. If this documentary is accurate, then the truth about our food deeply saddens and disgusts me. For example, it’s really, really rare to get good, quality meat that comes from good, quality farms where animals live and grow in good, quality conditions. Therefore, a lot of our meat falls under a larger umbrella of “mystery meat” or “crappy animal conditions meat” and to take a stand against this we should speak with our dollars by not consuming these products. But being lazy and hungry, as eye-opening as this amazing documentary was, it wasn’t enough to make me less lazy and less hungry. I still bought and consumed sausages and ground turkey meat this week. Only now it was with an educated, disgusted, and resentful mind. The truth about food is gross. And even when you buy organic food that seems less gross, a truly responsible consumer should make an effort to find out whether or not that green “organic” label actually means what it says. So actually the real truth about food is, until proven wrong, all of it is gross. Most likely. Maybe. Probably. (I guess I’m not feeling that positive today.)
Earlier this evening I was doing work with "The
Vow" playing in the background. Of course, "background" really
means I closed my laptop to give my full and undivided attention to yet another
predictable and shallow date movie. Porque? Porque Rachel McAdams has a pretty
face and perfect hair. Porque Channing Tatum is hot, even though he has yet to show
any real talent other than being handsome and physically fit. (True fans know
of his other talent: floppy hip hop dancing.) In this movie, a newlywed wife
wakes up from a coma with amnesia and her husband spends the next hour and a
half “loving her back to herself”. The storyline screams of K-drama origins but
it was actually based on a true story. The movie tries very hard but is overall
very light and painless. For such a scary and sad storyline, this smiley chick
flick is most likely the exact opposite of what I imagine the true story to be.
More lies. (Loved it, though, and would watch it again.)
At community group this week a few friends shared their
experiences with reality TV production and revealed this truth: drama sells, it
costs too much to just film and cross your fingers for good drama, so it all
comes down to plotting, planning, and producing. I say “revealed” but I was the
only one at the table with my mouth open. (No- HOW much of The Real Housewives is scripted? Wait- HGTV, too!? Stop. I have to go
home. See you at church. I hate you.) Needless to say and to no one’s
surprise, the moment producers cracked the code to reality shows was the moment
“reality” stopped being reality. The plain and obvious truth is yet another
lie.
There is one truth that
cannot be busted or broken. Jesus, son of God, came to us as a man, died on the cross, and rose again. All for love. This truth is my truth,
onto which I hold firmly and for dear life. In a world where TV, movies, and
even my food fool me all the live long day, I can still sleep well despite my consumption of lies because my truth will never change:
