We Are What We Think…and Eat
Walking down a familiar stretch of M Street in Georgetown in Washington DC, I noticed a new restaurant among the surrounding restaurants, all featuring foods from different regions of the world side by side in this half block—France, Afghanistan, India and an “Asian grill.” A half mile away are Mexican restaurants and across the street Ethiopian and Vietnamese restaurants. In this small neighborhood can be found restaurants with their chefs and staffs from most regions of the world.
The rich culinary offerings represent a heritage we have as Americans. Most of us at one point in our families’ histories came from immigrants arriving on the shore of this country that promised “liberty and justice for all.” Some began by starting restaurants with the food from their home countries.
America receives immigrants from 112 countries, according to 2016 statistics, a factor that has countered the declining population rates seen in many countries like Russia. U.S. immigration policy, however, continues to be debated and remains unresolved. Most Americans agree there need to be rational, enforceable immigration limits but with humane enforcement. Yet enforcement in the past year has never been as harsh and unwelcoming nor the national discourse as contentious, at least in my lifetime.
The discordant rhetoric also seeps into personal lives. I recently had conversations, one with an octogenarian, one with a young teenager—both included sentences beginning with a passionate “I hate…” The object of one was a political personage; the other a contemporary.
However justified hatred may seem, it doesn’t lead to the society we want to live in or to the actions that will build and benefit. Countering hatred can seem difficult, especially if the offense seems personal or existential, but hatred is a false foundation that cannot bear the weight of living. Hatred is as corrosive as any drug or poison or weapon to a person and to a society.
Hatred is countered thought by thought and action by action. Kindness, generosity, even if not reciprocated and even if not necessarily directed at the object of hate, can begin to fill thought and to crowd the hatred out.