Calories are the modern day curse

English: McDonalds’ sign in Harlem. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lets talk calories, or discuss what I think is  the health fanatics’ Waterloo? Because however, careful one is you get defeated.  I consider constant eating/drinking of calorie-rich substances  my mea culpa.

Lets talk about all the other  fun things in the world. Surely not boring calories? Who are they? Celebrities in little cereal boxes? Remember Salt and Peppa ‘s ‘Lets Talk abouts sex’. Instead we could replace the abominable 3-letter word with ‘calories’- ‘Hot to trot, make any man’s eyes pop’. Yeh, calories do. If one consumes too many. They also make the GP’s eyes pop.

What really are these Calories.? Dictionaries claim they are units of energy. A French dude apparently discovered them many years ago. No matter how many times you try and read, remember, decipher,translate or try and sudoku the little numbers on the box; do you really bloody believe them? Is there Government Food agencies out there that really microscopically measure these calorie amounts. And even if they claimed to be, why would we believe that it is true anyway. Didnt Benjamin Disraeli, a former Prime Minister claim that ‘There are three kinds of lies: ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics‘. Calorie counts for me are in the same class. If  Government agencies can lie about almost everything, why would we want to trust calorie counters? Who monitors them? Who really cares a jot what they get up to?

I will never claim to have the ins and outs on the science of food, but surely if food were meant to be natural would we really need to count how many calories are in say five grains of rice? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Did Eve ask how many calories were secretly stored in that Apple? Or did any one bother to ask how many calories the wine and bread contained at the Last Supper? Well, you could also ask about the starters, main meal and the dessert at the Last supper? And if one were padentic, you could stretch that to the fish and bread fed to the thousands. Surely too many calories would have been too bad for the health. Why are we so worried about the food we eat today? Is it poisonous? What doesnt kill you is meant to make you stronger. Are calories killers? In that case Human Rights legislation would suggest they are removed from the food chain.

Who really cares? Or should we care? I dont see anyone giving nutritional advice to the guys facing the death chamber/injection in America. Surely if there is an after-life, one would not want to be starting on the other side, with a body fully-laden with enough fat to power an Oldsmobile! Surely American governments would want to avoid that embarassment. Greatest power, and all on this planet/life.

Why do we so complicate life? Lets live life the way its meant to be. Life is good. Love it. Enjoy it.

What is life?

your opinion doesn’t matter (Photo credit: the|G|™)

Yes. what is life? Dictionaries will say there is evidence of some action and some self-sustaining processes. Evidence of living. Is that all?

Well, when that question somehow popped up in my head, for some strange reason Haddaway‘s ‘ What is love‘ started playing in my head. Those of a certain vintage may remember. It goes, ‘What is love?’

‘Oh baby don’t  hurt me.

Don’t hurt me no more’. I am sure you know the rest of the lyrics.

Is there a connection between the two? After all life can be a direct result of love (intended or not). Chicken and egg come to mind.

What is life? Are we defined by our jobs? Our self-worth? Are we defined by our monetary value? Or the friends we keep? Our families? The letters after our names? The titles? our failings? Our successes?  Are we defined by some altruistic concept?

I do not have the answers, so I ask the question.

The mortal coil that is us. Is That’s what is life is? What about our beliefs? Our faith? Or our non-faith?

Living the high life. Living la vida loca. Living the life of Riley.Is that what it is? I may be rumbling. But one has to ask these questions. Or are we to assume since we are living the life, that is life. Should we find room in ourselves to explore and discover more about us? Whats there to learn?. Explorers, all those hundreds of years ago traveled thousands of miles to discover something new. Discover what really?  Was that the life? Or a mere self-fulfilling mission? Is life anything to do with one’s happiness, or sadness? Or could it be an accident? I am not even alluding to conception!  Or is it some intrinsic concept yet defined? I only ask because I want to know. Otherwise I would keep schtum. Wouldn’t ask otherwise.

The Bible says the world and life was constructed in 7 days. Religions all bicker on what is life. Scientists have their own interpretation, and only last week a ‘Great discovery’ was made-Higgs boson. Apparently its the ‘God‘ particle. Its sent everyone in the scientific world agog. Doesn’t take much to please some people. Someone should issue a fatwa!  It is a good thing no one  said it was the ‘A’ word!  The ‘G’ word is all right. Just a thought, imagine they had called that particle ‘Pippa’s Bottom’-Millions of young boys (and girls too) would have become science-interested and thus turn a ‘boring’ thing into an overnight sensation.

Got to admit no one really knows what ‘life’ really is . Otherwise we would not all come up with different answers. The American Dream could be all what life is? But the deeply religious Americans may say otherwise. Survival of the fittest could be what it is, essentially. But surely should life be measured by the length of time one was of sound mind, and breathing? Could life not extend beyond our brief sojourn on this beautiful planet? Well, if you take away the Greenhouse effect, tsunamis, earthquakes, the cheating bankers, terrorists. It is beautiful. Well, I could add CNN, FOX, The Sun too-heck I wont cause I may get into some deep muck. The other side of the same coin is could life be something that started before we were born-those lustful looks, back of the car incidents, cinemas – I mean could our lives have been predetermined even before conception. I was gonna say DNAs, but freaked out. I don’t want to open up an even larger hornets nest. But seriously, where do we start from and where do we end?

Is it like the chicken & egg question? Well, imagine Mr/Ms Chicken having a chat with their neighbour Mr/Ms Egg discussing who came first!

I am still struggling to get a definitive answer to the question posited in the title. However, I was reading a blog earlier today which persuaded  me to look for answers from a different perspective. The blog is called http://www.wedontknowwhatthefutureholds.com. There is a quote from that blog I have un-ashamadely copied and pasted. It goes:

” Life is a test that we have to take; a risk, and one chance that we have. It is hard but with age comes kindness, good fortune, and love for others. Kindness is a gift to receive; a gift so special that you may only receive it once in a lifetime.”
– Beata B.

Is life a test? We do get tested almost everyday since we take risks everyday. Everyone one of us has to make some judgement everyday. Sometimes we call it wrongly. Other times we get it right. Experience helps. So does intelligence, culture, social and physical geography, upbringing, socialization, DNA(?), social circles etc.  That quote also made me think that life is also a gift. It’s a mortal present bestowed upon us to utilize wisely. Otherwise we would not be tested. Would we? I used to listen to a lot of rap music and some of the lyrics, possibly majority ululated about not living beyond the 20s. It seemed like a badge of honour that someone would cease to exist or kind of looked forward to their demise at such a tender age. Is it because the test was too hard? Or perhaps it was an acknowledgement that there was nothing worth striving for beyond a certain age. Or just misguided lyrics? Or perhaps some element of artistic licence?

“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.”

Leo Tolstoy

“What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

TBC