Words of Wisdom on Fat Tuesday

I didn't realize that Mardi Gras was so early this year!

Even though I grew up in an area of Utah that had almost as many Catholics as Mormons I never really thought much about these religious holidays; Mormons don't celebrate Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday or Lent. In fact, I always thought people were referring to lint, not lent... and I always wondered what the big deal was with the stuff that you cleaned out of the dryer. hehehe

Fat Tuesday never made sense to me either... why would one overindulge the day before one was going to start living better? That doesn't make sense to me.... but there are a lot of things the Mormons do that makes no sense to me now either. One of them is the Mormon doctrine called The Word of Wisdom.

If you've ever wondered why Mormon's don't smoke, drink alcohol, coffee or tea? It's all because of the Word of Wisdom. Here is an explanation of the doctrine from Wikipedia: "The Word of Wisdom was received in 1833 as a revelation from God. After Smith's death, Brigham Young stated that the revelation was given in response to problems encountered while conducting meetings in the Smith family home:
"When they assembled together in this room after breakfast, the first they did was to light their pipes, and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom, and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet [Joseph Smith] entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry."

The revelation contains four parts:
1. An introduction;
2. A list of substances that should not be ingested, including wine, strong drink, tobacco and "hot drinks";
3. a list of foods that should be used, some with certain limitations; and
4. A divine promise to those who follow the guidelines"

It's funny because the Mormon church only follows the 'don't drink, smoke or do drugs' part now and conveniently ignores the rest, which talks about healthy eating. Overeating and no exercise is bad for your body! Shouldn't Mormon's be more fit than everyone else seeing how they have this "law of health"? What made me think and write about this? I was looking at pictures of friends and family that I have reconnected with on Facebook who live in Utah; there are so many Mormons that are overweight and obese! I know, the whole country has obesity issues, and now people are starting to revel in being fat! (Kevin Smith...)

Shouldn't we stop with the overindulgence? Shouldn't we live everyday by a good 'code of health'?

By all means I don't follow the Word of Wisdom now... I like beer, some wines, some very strong drink, a cigar once in a while and a good cup of coffee every morning. But I also know that it isn't good to overindulge! The hangover the next day isn't fun at all. But I really do try to live a balanced and healthy life!

Oh what the hell.... it is Mardi Gras! Go enjoy!