After watching the trailer to Hunger Games in which the young male character Peter said that he wanted to show that they didn't own him after being picked to represent District 12, he said "If I am going to die, I want to still be me." As strange as it sounds, a line from the Night Before Christmas came to mind. "When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,".
In Hunger Games, it explains being trained in the art of survival rather than survival only.
I watched my father die that way- in a valiant death by disease. It has had a lasting profound effect on me to this day.
How does wonder get restored in a way that allows me to see each day in anticipation of not only Christmas(life), but even Easter(death and life) so that the sense of wonder is restored in such a way that I become more of myself to live and die the same me? Through willingness and readiness to suffer.
This week I came to recognize that hunger shows us something much deeper- that we're alive-alive as who we truly are- and to valiantly live in the art of survival where we do not fear death in such a way that it takes away the wonder of who we are.
Hunger. The hidden story underlying hunger.