American Idol

     The title is not a reference to the TV show, I have never watched it. I am referring to some version of the Keto/Atkins/Lo-carb diet making the rounds of the "rounded" in our church. Many of my 60ish peer group now look like their high school yearbook picture--from the neck down. The main evangelist of the movement is a well respected Bible study teacher who admits openly that she has always been obsessed with her weight. I struggle with vanity and I will admit that here to my four followers, and to a few friends with the same problem, but I would never share it openly on Facebook unless it was a sin I was overcoming. When I found myself in a group she was trying to lure to the "lite" side, I told her that after struggling with anorexia for 20 years, it was dangerous for me to do something artificial with my eating. Mine was not about body image or losing weight, that was a side benefit. It was, as most addictions are, about escaping through something else when life feels out of control. Obsessing about weight and diet, unless for specific health conditions, is just another American idol.    

    There is actually a term for addiction to healthy eating and exercise. It is called orthorexia. Those suffering from it have a hard time finding doctors to diagnose, much less treat it, because they are doing all the things doctors recommend. But addiction, even to health, is unhealthy. My husband's recent heart incident inspired him to start exercising and eating healthy. And, because it would not be right for me to tell him to limit sugar, salt and fat with my mouth was full of their crumbs, I have lost some weight too. I like that my clothes fit better, but it would not be worth it if the cost was forgoing all the food I love. And somehow, just as gluttony is a pardonable sin in Christian circles, so is its opposite, obsession with what not to eat. This is not a church destroying problem, it is just another distraction from spiritual matters to physical. And the last thing the church needs is another American Idol.           

   

   

Imagine That

     Not every city would book a fireworks show at a library, but Kalispell's has been popping nonstop for months. The director resigned in July, and the interim director resigned in December, both citing difficulties with the library board. One audacious member wanted to see the non-public areas of the library. That may not seem like an unreasonable request, but a friend who retired from there a couple years ago, said one of those rooms houses a huge backlog of books waiting to be shelved. Part of the reason for the huge backlog was an abundance of staff meetings and an hour per week of mandatory mental health maintenance. You could paint a picture, go for a walk, etc. but, even if the stacks of shelfless books were a danger to their physical and/or mental health, they were not allowed to do the job they were getting paid for. 

    Fifteen years ago our library got a new director, let's call her (insert progressive here). Why not? President Biden has promised his next supreme court pick will be (insert Black female here). The majority of Flathead County is conservative, many of the library staff were Christians, the library was a place to borrow books and other media. We were so unenlightened. 

    One of the first things Insert Progressive did was to change the name. Progressives re-invent themselves, churches rebrand themselves. No more dull denominations, we now have catchy concepts like Hope, Adventure, Canvas. If one of our local churches renames itself Pie, I might join. So Flathead County Library, at a cost of tens of thousands of county dollars, became Imagine If. I had to trade in my library card, getting one was one of my first orders of business when we moved to Kalispell and a rite of passage for my children. My new Imagine IF card:  No judgments. No funny looks. No questions asked--sounded like a customer loyalty card for an "adult" store. I buried it in my wallet and, except for rare occasions, stopped going to the library. 

    Employees who worked there for decades were suddenly unqualified for their jobs. Fortunately, the new director knew people who were, but it didn't matter much because materials were now checked out via self serve kiosks. There were more parties and craft times. Preschool story hour included a book with same sex parents. Staff had to state their preferred pronoun. The public computers were moved upstairs so children would not accidentally scorch their eyeballs if they saw the screen. Some of the unenlightened quit. But the most recent brouhaha was over a couple of sexually explicit books for teens that parents around the country are trying to have removed. When some of the library board members decided to support decency over the director, she resigned. The enlightened quitting--Imagine that.

    The progressives among us are screaming censorship. All libraries practice censorship, the only question is which things they censor. The new board-approved director, though experienced, does not have a Master's Degree in Library Science and people without Master's degrees are frequently normal. So, even though Kalispell has unaffordable housing and most of the potential candidates from a nationwide search withdrew their names, the state Librarian is threatening to withhold funds and "Shhh!" the library board until their ears bleed. The Flathead County Library may wind up supporting the values of the people who support it. Imagine That!