I have a raging food hangover and it's Adam and Eve's fault.
There's a lot to be said for moderation. Not only can you avoid both food and alcohol hangovers, you can also become a more virtuous person, Aristotle says. And, if nothing else, you can avoid puking oysters on your clients' shoes.
I'm not sure if there's a real medical term for the phenomenon I call food hangovers, but I get them periodically. I eat too much and come down with a crippling headache the rest of the day. I suspect it's related to the causes of alcohol hangovers: dehydration, mineral imbalance, overworking the body to process your excess intake, or whatever. (Get off my back. I have a headache so I spent about 90 seconds researching this). It's a text book case of excess being its own punishment.
While I'm in good company extolling the benefits of moderation, I never hear any discussion on the tragedy of moderation.
The very concept of moderation is a sign that something is seriously wrong in the world. Thomas Aquinas says "Thus, temperance inclines the sensuous appetite to acts of moderation conformably to right reason just as intemperance impels the same appetite to acts of excess contrary to the dictates of our rational nature." My amateur translation: "Moderation is when your desires are in line with what you rationally know is reasonable and good. We call the virtue of following moderation 'temperance'".
So what that means is that our appetites (the things we have a hankerin' for) are out of line with reason (what we oughta do). We've all experienced that. Sending an angry email even though it will ruin a relationship. Punching your boss even though you know you'll get fired. Going on a week long cocaine binge. Having a brat, a burger, a steak, a chicken breast, chips, macaroni salad, a Sprecher Cherry soda and strawberry shortcake for lunch. (Bonus challenge: Guess which one I've done. Hint: It's the overly specific one.)
We're constantly at war within ourselves. What we want is totally different from what's good for us and for our fellow man. It's the root of basically everything wrong in the world at both large and small scales. An investment banker asks himself "Should I bet on an unsustainable housing bubble? Of course, because I'll get zillions of dollars now in exchange for an inevitable crash in the distant future. Future-me will have to deal with, not present-me." A guy trying to get himself in shape for a winter Ultimate Frisbee season eats a giant 3000 calorie lunch that gives him a headache.
Yet for some reason, everyone I know (myself included until about 15 minutes ago), just accepts this as the way life works.
Well I don't. Not anymore. It's the way life is, but it's not the way life should be! It's a bug, not a feature. It's like a throbbing toothache in every situation and every choice we make, reminding us that reality as we know it is fundamentally dysfunctional.
This dysfunction, this throbbing pain, this buggy OS is what Christians call the Fall or Original Sin.
Fortunately, that means we're not meant to live like this! We were designed for better and the pain is sign that our original purpose is being thwarted. There's a hole in the enamel and the nerves are exposed.
Unfortunately, we're stuck in these bodies that want what's not good for us. That's where moderation comes in. It's the nerdy strip of duct tape holding our glasses together. I need it, but I don't like that I need it.
Fortunately, one day our glasses will get fixed and duct tape won't be needed. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
