Posts
How it works
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Today's Writing Prompt: Hungry
My kids are always saying "I'm hungry!" It drives me CRAZY, because we do not know what true hunger is. Do you? Have you been truly hungry or seen hunger in that way?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
"True" hunger? How can we know except the awful starvation we see in newspapers? People around us are hungry but we may not recognize it. When living in NYC I always gave to the people who said "I'm hungry." Sometimes I had an apple or granola bar in my bag and gave it to them, and sometimes it was clear they wanted money instead. That's okay. If someone is so needy, in whatever way, s/he begs in public, that person has a kind of hunger I do not have and deserves my kindness.
In my teens I volunteered for our church's Bridge Mission Vacation Bible School, which was located under the K&I Bridge on the banks of the Ohio River. At orientation we were told that lots of poor children came to Bible School because we were serving lunch.
I expected poor children, but was not fully prepared for what I saw. One day I asked "Johnny" where his brother was. He said, "Jimmy" will be here tomorrow. We only have one pair of shoes and I got to wear them today." It was then I noticed how thin he was, that his head was very large for his body, and that his clothes were torn.
Suddenly I realized his "suntan" was actually dirt. Naively I asked, "Do you have a bathroom?" Johnny grinned and proudly reported, "Yes, we have a bathtub in the front yard."
A growl of the tummy we think indicates hunger. What Annie said above in the comments is real hunger. Everywhere in this world we have hungry people. They might be next door. We have to knock and give them bread
But if they *are* hungry, what else should they say?
Telling kids they don't know what it means to feel hunger teaches them not to trust their own bodies.
They may not have experienced starvation or extremes of poverty (thankfully!) but everyone knows wht it feels like to be hungry.
I love two little kids who survived on almost no food until they were five and four years old. They ate "cakes" made of a little flour, water and mud. Some days a portion of rice or fruit. They still deal with the effects of starvation on their health. Learning to trust that food would be available even if they did not hide it or eat it all was not easy. So I have seen hunger and the pain it causes. My two are adjusting well to life in my family where love and food is plentiful.
Post a Comment