Take. Consume. Excess.
Is this truly happiness?
Intake anyway
Definition:
gluttony
n
the act or practice of eating to excess The punishment in Dante's Purgatorio-For those who "pigged out" their entire lives, they now spend eternity living in a rancid garbage heap guarded by the three headed dog Cerberus.
By Catholic definitions, gluttony was considered a sin because greedily consumed food was depriving the needy. Also in mediaeval times, the size of the meal you ate indicated your status in wealth and position, therefore consuming incredibly large amounts of food could cross the thresholds of Greed and Pride too. These negated the virtues of Charity and Humility. The church later on outlined more categories on how to commit this sin, such as eating too expensively, pickily, or too wildly without any self-control. If you also indulged in expensive foods, but then left many of it to waste, that was also considered sinful. Any worldly and physical need that became more important than your spiritual needs always landed you into damnation.
Now in today's society, an obvious picture of this may look like...oh say...the rising obesity rates, especially in America. But I had another thought.
You don't just consume food excess. You can drink alcohol in excess. You an intake drugs and other narcotic substances in excess. You can eat the words of others so hungrily, that acting upon those ideas you've consumed becomes mental and physical obsession.
So instead of THIS being the poster child for gluttony:
(OBESITY)
what about THIS?
(ANOREXIA AND BULIMIA NERVOSA)
or THIS?
(ALCHOHOLISM)
or any of THESE?
(COCAINE ADDICTION)
(NICOTINE ADDICTION)
(METH ADDICTION)
An addiction can be excessive indulgence of obsession.
What are your thoughts?
This is an interesting take on Gluttony. Excessive eating is the definition, but I think you make an interesting point that too much of anything can be bad. I liked the historic referrences to this particular sin. What is even more interesting, I think the roles have reversed. Impoverished people in the US tend to be more overweight because they cannot afford healthy foods. People who can afford and have time to prepare good foods are healthier. So Gluttony can be described as hoarding any desired resource.
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