Been in the desert for the last wee while, thinking about Sodom.
Sodom was a town in old school Israel - before Israel was israel in fact. God chucked brimstone down on it to clear it oot aff the earth because it had become like a weeping scab. Many people told me that it was all about the sodomy that was going on. Ive been thinkng that the problem was wider than that.
I dont want to get sidetracked into a masive debate about sexual morality here. Besides, Im more concerned that people understand that God loves them than His views on what bits should go where. Theres enough media sensationalism to cover that. What Im more concerned with is
appetites.
I was talking to my mate Jed about 3 weeks ag. He's just stepped off the edge and become a professional musician. This, of course, means that he's now pretty skint. As we where talking about it he mentioned 'Aye, I just canny buy a chocolate bar whenever Im in the garage now'. It really struck me that for the last 5 years, thats exactly what Ive been doing.
Now dont get me wrong. Ive been skint to the point of malnutrition before, but that was a looooong time ago. Im surprised how little time it took me to forget how to say 'no' after that. I've become so acustomed to eating pretty much what I want when I want. Chippy? Aye - why no? Should I cook or get a pizza? Easy descision.
The trouble is, this is not the only appetite that wants fed. We live in such a 'want' driven culture its easy to guzzle pretty much anything. TV. Internet. Smoking. Playstation. Drugs. Porn. Music. Books. Art
... etc. Many if these things on their own are moraly inert, of course. But as alcoholics annonymous say "alcohol aint the problem - I AM". And what are we afraid of anyway? If we loose our little bubbles of self indulgence will we actually have to deal with ourselves?
Self controll has become a rare commodity - almost redundant in this comparitive utopia. We've got so much we just dont need it. Still dont believe it? While South American street kids eat out of bins obesity is still endemic in the UK and US. While Indnian farmers have their wives sell a kidney to make ends meet, we live in a culture that now see's technological advances brought about through pleasure seking (as opposed to war or epidemic, for the first time in recorded history
anywhere). And the real tradgedy is that our wee fancies have become so easy to fulfill we dont even realise how greedy we've become.
This isnt about consumerism - this is about us. Our personal conduct. Our apparent inabilaty to say 'No' to ourselves. Try it, it might be harder than you realise. And as always, the more we get the more we want.
In this sense, we are all Sodomites.
