Marie Kondo Does Lent: Too Much Food To Enjoy  

This is the 4th post in the Marie Kondo Does Lent series

Marie Kondo’s concept of “too much to enjoy” helps me with food too. My parents were a little weird about food. We didn’t have many snacks hanging around. While I am now glad that I did not have the opportunity to binge on junk food, why did we have to ration the bananas! We used to put our names on them! I hadn’t been aware of how odd this “banana naming” practice was until my good friend, Janie MacPherson, spent a few days with us while her parents were out of town. She literally fell on the floor laughing when she saw the marked bananas. As a guest, there was one with her name on it too!

I grew up during the time of the Viet Nam war in the 60-70’s and was not a very sensitive or politically aware teenager. So I used to joke that our relatively empty refrigerator was reminiscent of a Cambodian refrigerator. Instead of shaming my mother into buying more snacks, she laughed and proudly repeated my clever remark. I now, of course regret comparing our well-stocked larders with those of a people being starved to death. A true example of someone being “spiritually versus materially poor” if there ever was one.

Naturally this “faux food deprivation” colored my approach to eating. If I was at a buffet, it was like every dish had my name on it! I deserved to eat it! So in many ways, the concept of “too much to enjoy” was a lifesaver for me when it came to over eating.

I experienced the power of “too much to enjoy” during a recent all-inclusive food and drink vacation. I found myself with a plate of three fish tacos, packed with shredded lettuce, sprinkled with queso fresco cheese and a perfect squiggle of light green crema.

I asked myself after the second one, “Is the third too much to enjoy?

The answer was yes and I left it on my plate.