It's an ugly topic. Especially since most of us eat way, way too much.And, of course, we do it pretty much all of the time.

But let;s investigate this topic a little more deeply, no matter how offensive it is. And, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us as adjust our belts to be a little more comfortable.

First of all it is one of the words in the English language with no synonyms. Hunger. It is a word that stands alone. And as it goes along it becomes another word with no synonym: starvation.

Can you imagine this happening to you?

In the mirror as you are slowly changing. From a robust figure of yourself today to something else, something less. Something much less. Almost like a cadaver emerging, your new body is appearing. Your legs begin to thin, your face is hollowing out. Your arms are losing their powers, and hang more often than not listlessly at your side. That bright look in your eyes that impressed your Mom and Dad is becoming vacuous, you notice the more attractive parts of your body now are droopy with loose skin. You also notice that everyone around you is experiencing the same symptoms, but you don't really discuss it because there seems to be nothing to do about. They are your friends and family, and it hurts you to think about it, let alone talk about it. And, the little children seem to be faring worst of all.

There is a growing, knawing quiet all around. Everything seems to be slowing down in a dark, dusty fog. Where once there were places to go, now everywhere is the same dry, desolate place. In the mirror you scared yourself this morning. It was as though you really looked for the first time. You can see your own skull emerging through the thinning lips and enlarging eyes; you can see their sockets. Children now listly hanging around you hoping that you will share whatever you have with them. But you have nothing. Their eyes are haunting you. And, now, as your body is dissolving itself even bodily functions like urination and elimination are rarities. It's now down to basics. Just staying alive. Clothing is not important, and style is long forgotten. Education means nothing. Ambition seems stupid, now. Graves, crude and quickly dug to conserve energy, appear around like grim footprints. All the animals are gone. Every living thing has been eaten, dust blows through your village on a dry, wry wind that carries a baneful smell that is now too familiar: like a last dying breath.

Day after day, now month after month, this slow attrition has gone on. Each day has brought to you a deeper centering on your own desperation. There is no where to go. There is nothing to be done. The sun comes up, the sun goes down. All you think about is death, food, death, food, deathfooddeathfood...

Now you are increasingly alone.

Things have thinned out. People lay around alone, as though too immersed in personal struggles, unable to do anything else.

Things that were important before are of no importance whatsoever, now in the shadows of no hope.

People who were important are now just part of the numbness you are trying not to think about. As the days pass you find yourself avoiding any reflection, why look? You know that death is strengthening the weaker you grow. Like a silent pursuer, death is coming. You know. In that, you now find solace.

There is a rubicon in dying that, once crossed, cannot be recrossed. Once in that penumbra peace arrives. A sad, bewildering peace. But, peace nonetheless. Where all the people don't matter. Individuality is swallowed in a dry gulp. And then the harvester comes by and picks you up... and then the next, and the next...

And you notice, I am sure, that poverty and starvation are partners? But as reported in all major communication services the current situation in the Sudan, like all of these sadnesses, also come hand- in-hand with bad politics.

All politics is a continuum. It either starts with self-referentiality, at one extreme, and ends with a starving population, or it starts with self-abnegation and service to others and ends with prosperity and progress. Think of that last vote you cast out there on the waters of your dreams... did you cast a self-abnegating vote or a self-referential vote? Did your vote say, "That's what I want?, or "That's what we all need?" Do you know the difference? Keep watching in the mirror. See what's emerging there and you'll know.. See you next time.