Halos and Handguns

Gun laws, something of a debate these days. After all, when inanimate objects start to take over, killing hundreds a year, I too have my concerns. If only there was a way to understand the workings of tools that have evolved over the past few decades into these killing machines. Unfortunately, I have not come across the self-workings of a handgun, much like a hammer or the stinging steel of a blade. Therefore, I will attest to what I do know a little about, being human.

Though my experience in humanism has only been 32 years, I have spent much time in this brain of mine, and in the last fifth or more helping others with what they present in their mind. This makes me nothing of an expert, however does allow me to contribute a perspective with intent to assist those who try to control. Those are left tired and angry, spreading soiled words on their children and so on.

One apparent, and safer route to travel down is that of ice cream, or more specifically, ice-cream-type foods, a, "healthier" version that Americans have turned to to satiate their buds.

Maybe I’m jealous. Maybe because I can’t and other people can. Or, maybe I am on the right track and what follows is more than a rant, but could be a perspective you hadn’t heard before, a challenge to the system.

Halo Top ice cream, is exactly what is wrong with society these days. Nutritionally, it is garbage and nothing more than a throwback to the low-calorie options of the 90’s. Have we learned nothing? Must we do this again? Have we not at least grown into the idea that we rely on treats when we were not meant to do so on a regular basis? Yet, by convincing yourself, through marketing and social media’s need to seem noble in supporting a treat that is “healthy,” we can eat it anytime we want. Gone are the special days of an ice cream treat, for now I can have Pancakes and Syrup flavored ice and sugar frozen beverage whenever I want. See ya later moderation, and hello to reduced calorie for we are not capable of doing any of this by ourselves apparently.

“But Luke, everyone deserves a treat now and then, this helps those people.”

A rebuttal of anything other than a laugh is a waste. A weak attempt to convince people that what they are doing is right and I must be a fun hater for I won’t just give in that something outside of me or my recommendations is, “good.” With that I will first say, deserves what? Why? And, it is the utter reliance on treats that demanded a developed product like this anyways.

No Halo Top is not the only bandwagon to come through town chiming their bells of hope and promise to finally achieve nirvana. Now there are many over-priced tubs of flavored guar gum and prebiotic fiber blends to throw down the gullet, reinforcing the need to have something, the reliance outside of self to finally be “OK.” I mean, now we can look back on Jesus and the Apostles and wonder how they possibly made it through the Last Supper without a Birthday Cake Halo Top treat? How God, have we done this in the past without relying on our savior, “the sweet stimulation” to relieve our angst? Surely, the Illuminati has been up to these creations for years, for how have we all come to just now experience the pleasure known as guar gum and organic cane sugar? Oh thank you earth, for you have graced us with the food of the gods and yet we get to keep our bodies looking like Adonis too.

But wait, with all of these creations, we continue to get fatter and fatter? How can this be? Satan must be involved, for this place is his playground, and he must increase the gravity for we all fall flat of the glory…

It's the patterns of eating, not the darn food that has to change. For the patters, rooted in beliefs that first we deserve something, and second that a sweet treat remedies anything. Is all it does, much like sweetened, low-calories foods have throughout time is to trigger a binge later on, reinforce sweets as a staple in life, and increase the grocery bill extensively. I mean $6 for a pint, of what? I’ll sell you some water and a scoop of coconut oil for $5 and we’ll call it good.

I don’t want to do the whole, “you’ll see” talk because it’s disgusting and not what I really want out of this. What bothers me is the blatant trickery that is going on here and that with our money we contribute to waste of money products like this telling the world what we really care about. We are a nation of addicts, most of which are too sick to see, and yet, we have the audacity with our sweetened-laced spoons to point at anyone else and tell them they have a problem. Unless that spoon is pointing in a mirror does anyone have room to judge. Our habits have zero to do with the product we rely on to cope, and all the weight in the reliance itself. Like I said, maybe some can have a scoop or two and let it be, but more and more I am seeing disordered eating patterns shine through under the guise of health. This product is nothing more than a mask to show the world that you know and sacrifice for what is, “healthy” in all fairness only you know the truth.  You know what else can persuade you for 300 calories and 20g of sugar? A regular Snickers bar. So you go ahead and convince me that by eating one of these babies that you are any better than you were before.

Now, if it hasn't been made apparent by now, the same pathway that drives a person to rely on sweetened-foods, deemed healthier, can be the same thought process that believes guns kill people. The food is relied on to relieve when it is not capable of such a thing, much like a gun does not kill people, but their beliefs, values, and intention does. The same lack of common sense that wants to make the environment better with these products or getting rid of those guns, that will solve it, isn't anything more than reinforcing the same thing we want to eradicate in the world, lack of responsibility.

Discipline, sacrifice, and humility are foundational principals to everything from the Bible to what America was built on. I can't help but notice, being a human as I am, that since departing from these virtues things continue to distort.

My book, Castle-Broken: When appearances are everything, about male body image disorders, a memoir about my life, reflects some of my old, similar reliance on stimulating foods and other things to make me better, when in the end it was me, and not the world.  Available HERE.

God Bless, and God Bless America.