We ate too much. Of course we did. It was a Thanksgiving feast, here in the land of plenty. Go ahead, America, take another bite. The most powerful nation in the world doesn’t have to apologize for being a little hungry.
By exercising more and eating less, I’ve lost the fifteen pounds I gained last winter. It’s tempting to imagine I’ve become more virtuous. In fact, I’ve merely become more disciplined. Why assume that discipline is necessarily a virtue? Anorexics are disciplined. So is the miser who won’t give a dollar to charity. So is George W. Bush, in bed every night by ten. Besides, if I equate discipline with virtue, I’m more likely to judge others for their seeming lack of discipline. Surely there’s no virtue in that. Yesterday, I visited with an old friend who’d gained quite a bit of weight since I’d last seen her. Making a judgment about her appearance was as tempting as reaching for a sweet. But I didn’t need those calories.
