Seven

No, not the movie, the book. I started reading Seven: an experimental mutiny against excess yesterday afternoon and I think I'm in love. Seriously, I resonate with almost everything the author Jen Hatmaker says. And not only am I totally tracking with her, I think we're long lost sisters. Twins. Identical. I'm serious. In a section where she talks about her month of eating only 7 foods, she discusses the challenge as she loves eating. Here is a direct quote from one of the sections: "Food is the centrifugal force that draws together my people. According to me, a party needs no other activity than eating...I love to chop. I love to saute. I love to deglaze. I can't live without shallots." Is that not me? A while ago I was out of shallots (gasp, I know), so I called my mom, Sarah and Mary, asking if any of them had some, since we were meeting up later that day. To my shock, none of them had even one. Mary volunteered to pick one up at the farmers' market but do you know what she said after I hastily took her up on her offer? "What do they look like?" It's a miracle the sun came up the next day.

Anyway, I was hooked on this book (and my twin) in just a few paragraphs and the more I read, the more I'm convinced she's onto something. The excess in which we live is astounding, but we don't see it, because everyone around us lives in it too. I am excited to see where her experiment takes her - seven months of fighting excess. In the first month, she ate only 7 foods. In the second month, wore only the same 7 items of clothing. In the month I'm reading now, she's given up 7 forms of media. One of those was TV, and it was while I was reading one of her entries (it's sort of written like a blog) that I became convinced we're clones. She writes, "My favorite show is currently on its fourth week - So You Think You Can Dance - and I haven't heard boo about it from my friends. They are acting like they're not watching....pretending to wish they were on a media fast because there is nothing good on and they could spend more time in Bible study and mediation like I was getting to..." I mean, come on. Her favorite show is SYTYCD? She even arranged dance parties and went to see it live. That reminds me of someone who once tried to buy tickets to see the tour only to find the LA stop sold out.

Still not convinced? She lives in Austin. I know?! Were we separated at birth or what?

Seriously, I am stoked about this book and ruminating some of my own ideas about implementing a few of the challenges she poses. I'll keep you posted. And thanks, Eric, for the book recommendation and loan! You were right - I dig it.