Hunger Is Not a Disease

A Vision Quest at My Desk

IT SITS IN A CORNER OF MY HEALING SPACE – MY DESK.

It barely holds my laptop, the desk is so large in my life.  For, at this desk, I am on a vision quest.

Some of my friends went on Vision Quests over twenty years ago when we were all in our fifties.  These adventures mostly included travel to places like Macchu Picchu, or boating down the Amazon, or living in an ashram in India…things like that.

TO A WOMAN, EVERY ONE RETURNED REFRESHED, RENEWED, SPIRITUALLY AWAKENED…CHANGED.

Well, I’m on a vision quest now…at my neighborhood food pantry in scenic Upstate New York  where I’ve seen things, heard things, felt things, learned things that I never would have even in my wildest dreams thought possible before 2005.

I’ve had the unique and precious pleasure to become intimately involved with artists, child abusers, children, church committees, church boards, crazies, the disabled, druggies, drunks, elderly men and women, hardworking people juggling two and three jobs, homeless, mentally ill, messed up people, ministers, monks, musicians, pastors, people battling terminal illness, poets, politicians, priests, rabbis, schizophrenics,  thieves, veterans, volunteers,  Woodstock’s colorful characters, writers in that tiny pantry room.

I’VE SCOURED THE COUNTRYSIDE LEARNING THE MEANING OF THE TERM ‘UNWORTHY HUNGRY.’

I’ve seen people in the depths of despair regain their dignity.

I’VE LEARNED TO FIGHT FOR WHAT I KNOW IS RIGHT,  JUST,  FAIR.

I’ve done many hundreds of other things too…including becoming a student at Gotham.

For the past year, in classes taught by Melissa Petro, Carl Capotorto, Allison Stein,  Michael Leviton, and Cullen Thomas, I chronicled these conflicts.  The skills I learned  offer even more adventures.

I’M ON THIS ADVENTURE TO THE FINISH NOW.    Last year, I didn’t even know what a blog looked like and now I’ve got two.

The first, I began in January, is a textbook on Reflexology which I’ve been teaching from for years.

The second blog, “Hunger is not a Disease”, is the story of hunger as told through the eyes of a small town food pantry.

On behalf of hungry people everywhere who frequent food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, I thank you for reading this blog/book.

Please share this article with your preferred social media network.

Please leave a comment.

Peace and Food for all.

Thurman Greco