Friday, March 25, 2011

My Achilles Heel

I am very glad I did not just jump into the money fast. My plan is to prepare for the first half of Lent and then actually do the fast during the second half of Lent. I will begin Sunday April 3.

I've already cut out Starbucks and started brewing my own tea (which has actually also led to a cutback on my consumption of caffeine). I've also pretty much refrained from impulse purchases. I am not buying prepared food from the prepared food counters at Whole Foods but food staples (which seems to have coincidentally led to a cutback in calories consumed).

Lunches out, however, are my Achilles Heel.

I needed to have a relaxed conversation with someone yesterday. We met at a restaurant halfway between where we live and had a very important conversation.

Today I am meeting with someone from another city for lunch at a restaurant near his hotel. Where would we meet if we didn't go to a restaurant or coffee shop?

My plan was to prepare lunches in advance and invite people to my office, but twice this week the geography would not have worked. What do I do? Prepare bag lunches and invite people to eat them in my car? I don't think so. A park bench, depending on the weather, would be better but still odd.

Anybody have any ideas?

I hope to be posting a guest blog tomorrow. Please watch for it. I would love to have more guest bloggers. Just email me your blog and I'll be happy to post it.

5 comments:

  1. This has been the hardest part of the financial fast for me too. Sharing meals at other people's homes has been one way to avoid buying prepared meals, but it's true that it's not always possible. Luckily, I don't have a job or work relationships that require lunch meetings. When the weather is nice I think it's perfectly acceptable to eat at a park outside with friends. It's a nice change of scenery. It's so much easier to talk with others during a meal. Especially if it's someone I don't know very well. I'm still finding it hard to find an equal alternative. I guess this is all to say that I don't have an alternative yet, but I would be really interested to hear if other people have.

    Although, I do like Whole Foods' new eating area upstairs. It's separate and so I don't feel obligated to purchase something so sometimes I bring a meal and eat there. I figure it's still fair too because I probably purchased parts of my meal there earlier that week...

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  2. And what about online dating meetups? The shared-but-still-free activity [National Gallery, sculpture garden, Air&Space, NMAI] is too parallel, not really face-to-face. Safety/common-sense precludes hosting a meal until you know someone well. The coffee shop and casual restaurant are the matchmaker introduction logistics of our time.

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  3. I applaud your plan to fast in this way. Both my wife and I are leading our congregations to study "Enough" by Adam Hamilton during Lent. I'll review and pass on your resource "Power to Prosper" and use it to supplement the study we are using for Lent. I'll pray for you as you discover a new path God is leading you towards as you continue to witness to a progressive and radical faith.

    Paz,

    Alfred Johnson

    PS: We share lunch out "Heels:)," but not my fast! Off coffee, but not caffiene

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  4. What you're talking about here is what Ray Oldenburg calls a third place. A neutral space to hang out with other people and socialize that is neither a home nor a workplace. In our society, most third places cost money to use, and that's a real social problem.

    Similarly, I suspect you buy tea at Starbucks when everyone, including you and the barista, knows that you could easily make your own tea for pennies, because what you're really paying for is the space.

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  5. A couple of years ago when I was inspired by the book "Not Buying It; my year of not shopping" (I think Judith Levine was the author's name) Mark and I went on a financial fast of sorts--kept it up for the better part of the year. I allowed myself anything that could be purchased at a grocery store. The local Giant has a place where you can sit and eat things you bought at the salad bar, so my friend Wendy and I used to meet there. We still do it when I'm feeling poor.

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