Letters - 21 September 2018
From food for thought to fracking
Food for thought
I grew up on English farm cooking, tested over many years by people who knew how human beings and animals thrive. Waves of loosely defined love seem to me to have little to do with choices of food.
An aunt who lived in the heart of country said that she could understand why people in the city did not know what to eat. Food values can be measured, as we know. Sensible habits, regular meals and care of our own bodies encourage responsible good health.
It seems foolish to me to starve ourselves just because others are starving! Children often grow somehow, even on an unbalanced diet. However, a healthy appetite and a ‘satisfying something’ to feed on, which gives the pleasure of eating a good meal, is reason to give thanks for sustaining food.
The Lord’s Prayer has: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ I understand that this was omitted by one prayerful person because they always had some bread!
By all means, try different kinds of food if you can, but don’t be too fussy.
If the Religious Society of Friends goes vegetarian, I’m off - as long as my teeth last out.
Mary L F Friend
Equality and diversity
‘One cannot have equality and diversity,’ writes Jan Deręgowski (14 September). Diversity is with us. We have no choice in that. We are all different: different skills, different disabilities, different colour, different faiths and so on. This is diversity, for which I am thankful.
Equality, to me, means treating each person as of equal value, not as if we are all the same - because we are not. In attempting to practice this I fail. I have to do my best and acknowledge my failure. It is not that equality and diversity cannot exist together - they often do - but I do not know myself well enough to recognise underlying prejudices and weakness of will, both of which contribute to my inability to be in tune always with everyone. Let us strive together and be thankful for our recognising and sharing this dilemma.
Win Sutton
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