I've always enjoyed sporting traditions. It really doesn't matter what they are, it just interests me how certain things have arisen and become part of something larger. The 7th innings stretch is one such eccentricity. The history of how it came into being is, like many such phenomena, subject to much discussion, but every baseball game play in America has one and sometimes the why doesn't really matter.
Its the evening of day four of the challenge - my own 7th innings stretch. Time to stand up, walk around for a few minutes and get ready for the final chapters in this short adventure. It's been a long day and one where the realisation of what you are doing, and how it could be in a wider reality of actually having to 'live below the line', starts to hit home.
But first (even before the details of the menu for the day!) - I just want to link my BLT page.
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Anyway todays menu - see Monday. No really, see monday.
Breakfast - porridge. OK, my waxing lyrical has petered out a little, but its comfort food and that cant be sneezed at.
Lunch - as discussed yesterday, the days of luncheon sandwiches are over never EVER to return. But fruit for lunch was nice.
Dinner - the return of tomatoey pasta. Hooray! No photo - looked just like Monday and Tuesday.
Supper is yet to come but who can argue with fruit and some milk? o.O
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With any challenge that has a finite time associated with it, as the end approaches you mind turns to events afterwards - as it helps get through the last hour/day/week. This challenge is no different. But what is so hard with this challenge, that you long for the 'its over' bit? Well for me, obviously its the caffeine. But there are other things.
Earlier on the BTL FB page they posted a quote:
"Day three of Live Below the Line and I felt a bit like I’d hit a wall. Not so much out of hunger, though the pangs were there, but mainly a hankering for something other than rice, oats, lentils or chickpeas"
Oh yes indeed. This diet isnt hard, its just boring. My favourite food is Italian, and I cant see myself having pasta again for weeks. Tomatoes will be banned cooking ingredient until Christmas. Luncheon will never cross my lips again, ever. I miss so many things - but what I miss most is variety. Freedom to choose and that is the whole point!
As the saying goes, walk a mile in their shoes. I havent walked a mile, just a few feet but it quickly becomes a reality check. I chose to do this, I chose whether I complete it, whether I cheat, whether I dont (I havent). I chose. But this isnt a choice for everyone.
Much as the 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide are the big picture - there are always smaller stories that are as important. As I discovered back in August when I first engaged in this challenge in 2006/07 22% of New Zealand children were living in poverty. That is,
in households with incomes below the 60% median income poverty line. This isnt something that is happening somewhere else. Its happening in your town, within a few miles of you, just down the street or right next door to you.
So as my dreams turn to large flat whites and eye fillets - my own seventh innings stretch - its worth thinking about what we have been emulating. First world problems really are brought into perspective when you think about it that way.
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