History in the Making

No matter where you fall on the divide between should pot be legal or shouldn't it, it became legal yesterday in Washington State. I'm not a user and I grew up in Alaska when it was legal to own it, grow it and use it - you just couldn't sell it; so I didn't consider it too big a deal. But let me tell you what was a big deal. Nope not all the pictures of weed. Not all the pictures of paraphernalia to use it. Not all the jokes. Not the pictures of smoke. But the munchies stuff... THAT was unexpected.

Sludge, sludge everywhere. Billboards on movie houses toting all the usuals - under the markee, "Got the Munchies? We've got Pi". Clever? yes. Disturbing to the person working on staying on plan? YES. Pictures of wrappers. Pictures of half eaten this or that.

And, I realized: this culture is even more food focused than I ever realized. Pot is legal in the Netherlands, but it isn't like there are junk food billboards all over Amsterdam. What is it about our American culture that is so junk food crazy?

What will this new legalization do to our collective waistlines? Will it become a tacit approval to eat and eat and eat? I don't blame the pot. I blame our collective reaction to using it. Our culture struggles with excess. I know, from my graduate studies, that it is one of our cultural patterns. It comes from the "expansion west" - the exploration of new territories. But I wonder, when will we realize constant expansion is unhealthy?

I know I am preaching to the choir, on Medifast, where everyone has made the decision to stop their personal expansions and deal with their lack of control and tendency to exploit excess. And, I realize that we have such a bigger struggle than just our personal journeys. That we will have to fight our cultural norms. Every day. For the rest of our lives. 

Perhaps, each of us will become a voice for change. A voice for moderation. A voice for realistic consumption. We will become leaders by example.

Think about it. We, without realizing it, have signed up to be cultural Change Agents.