I've been very fortunate today to go to the tennis centre for lunch. As we are a company that spends oodles of money on seats and meals at the Australian Open two of us were invited to a tasting of the menu for the 2011 event. So, we indulged in a tasting of 4 entrees and 4 main courses plus a vast number of desserts and ice creams that will be offered to the Gold corporates. There were also 4 different wines to taste which, being a good Salvo, I chose to ignore. It's a great way to spend a work day I must say!
But the question that always arises is, what happens to all of the food not eaten. For example, two people on our table didn't show up. They would have been catered for. Of course, food handling laws require that most of it be thrown out. Sometimes when you can't see it it doesn't seem so bad. But on this occasion sitting on long trestle tables were examples of the food that will be on offer in the 'lesser' dining rooms. Large platters full of steaks and chops, prawns and slabs of salmon. All of it beautifully cooked and every last bit of it destined for the rubbish bin. In fact, as the chefs prepared it they would have known that its only purpose was for display, never to be eaten. It's an incredible waste. It's criminal.
There is also a lot of waste of life in our world. Tonight on tv is the documentary on Ben Cousins, a guy who has managed to turn his life around and hopefully will keep on doing so. But for every relative success story like Cousins there will be plenty of examples of those who didn't manage it. Beautiful creations of God - a human example of the food platter, a fantastic creation but ending up as waste. I guess this is one of the reasons why our denomination, the Salvos, exists, to try to ensure that none of God's beautiful, perfect creations ever ends up in the garbage. Every life created by God has great potential. It would be criminal if we just stood by and watched them self destruct.
It's somewhat frustrating sitting in an office 5 days a week, and spending most of my 'ministry' time in music activities. It doesn't seem quite right.
I hear ya !
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same - until Redundancy fixed some of my problem. I'm still struggling with the music ministry - as much as I enjoy it (most of the time), and now I'm out and about takling to the public (albeit "fundraising" for the work of TSA) I'm starting to feel a little better.
Not sure if you caught my Blog - Small Corners, but that sums up where I'm at at present.
ps. I'm not wishing unemployment on you in any way, shape or form.