On Eating the Menu #7

I have repeatedly mentioned ‘Don’t eat the menu’ and ended my blog with that saying. Now I would like to talk more about it. It is similar to the old sayings, ‘The map is not the territory,’ and ‘The word is not the reality.’ It is easy to contradict someone who studies a map of New York City and then states that he visited New York. Or someone says, ‘I really love Michelle Obama,’ but has never met her. 

Let’s imagine I attend a dinner and am presented with a menu of what will be served. The menu is beautifully printed on lovely paper, and I begin trying to eat it, ignoring the meal when it arrives. That is literally eating the menu.

Not so literal is this example of metaphorically eating the menu. Recently, I read a fine and fascinating novel entitled The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. It tells the story of a pre-Civil War family in the South. The family members were, they believed, devout Christians. They owned eleven slaves whom they treated with severe cruelty if they were disobedient in any way. They were eating the menu – that is, they were following a very superficial interpretation of what Jesus revealed in the Bible. If they followed the spirit of Jesus’s words, they would be much too compassionate to own slaves and could never be cruel to those working for them, slaves or not, no matter who they were or what color their skin. They only ate the menu and ignored the wonderful banquet of human dignity and beauty in themselves and others. The ‘banquet’ we are born into, and the one Jesus enhanced and promoted, is one of inner beauty, compassion, courage, peace, hope, and justice. All enlightened mystics of history, such as Jesus, Confucius, Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Mohammed, agree on this.

So, it is important for all of us to read widely and to work to understand many points of view. We must strive to become more life-giving, creative, compassionate humans. I have encountered many people who spout lovely words but were far too cold and uncaring for me to spend much time with, let alone to follow. Their ‘menu’ often promises hope, contentment, and some kind of salvation away from the misery they believe we are experiencing – but, in reality, they do not care for anyone other than themselves. If I run into anyone or any organization that demands that I follow without question and do exactly as they say, I do my best to run from them– even if I’m threatened with death or damnatio. True leaders do not demand that I give up my personal ability to choose.

It took me many years to be able to discern what I now call the false ‘menus.’ I think that many, if not most, of the folks in our world are eating the menus and failing to embody the contents. They allow themselves to be led by self-appointed teachers and leaders who are not life-giving nor lovingly growth-enhancing. Now, I study many of those menus and reject them if they do not help me to become more enlightened and life-giving. So please study the menus but do not eat them. When you discover a positive banquet, devour the beautiful and life-giving banquet with which we all were born.

As we say, Nurture your heart and don’t eat the menu.