Cake is the biggest temptation in life

"'Doctors are allowed to tell us things which they might not do themselves.  They know what the right this is, but they may not be able to do it themselves.  That does not mean that their advice is bad advice.'"  Mma Potokwane p. 109

p. 110
"'Maybe there are people who would say that I eat too much cake.'"

"'But you do not eat too much, do you?'" observed Mma Ramotswe.

Mma Potokwane's response came quickly.  "'No, I do not.  I do not eat too much cake.'" She paused, and looked wistfully at her now emptying plate. "'Sometimes I would like to eat too much cake.  That is certainly true.  Sometimes I am tempted.'"

Mma Ramotswe sighed.  "'We are all tempted, Mma.  We are all tempted when it come to cake.'"

"'That is true,'" said Mma Potokwane sadly.  "'There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.'"

p. 111
"'Temptation is very difficult,'" said Mma Ramotswe quietly.  "'I do not always resist it.  I am not a strong woman in that respect.'"

"'I am glad you said that,"' said Mma Potokwane.  "'I am not strong either.  For example, right at the moment, I am thinking of cake.'"

"'And so am I,'" confessed Mma Ramotswe.

Mma Potokwane stood up and shouted to the girl outside.  "'Two more pieces of cake, please.  Two big slices.'"

From the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series In the Company of Cheerful Ladies 


I love reading series of novels during the summer.  As a child, I read Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children, and many others.  This summer, I discovered the delightful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series about a woman in Botswana, Africa who starts a detective agency.

Each book has various mysteries, but the majority of the books deal with issues in Botswana and the rest of Africa, rights of women, education, cultural norms, changing societies, and many other intriguing topics.

Written by a Swedish man who was born in Zimbabwe, Africa, I have enjoyed gaining more knowledge about Botswana.  Particularly interesting to me have been references to food, bodies, and body image.  Mma Ramotswe, the protagonist, is proud of being a traditionally built lady and makes various comments about thin women and feeling sorry for them.

In Morality for Beautiful Girls, Mma Ramotswe is described as follows:
"She had a taste for sugar, however, and this meant that a doughnut or a cake might follow the sandwich. She was a traditionally built lady, after all, and she did not have to worry about dress size, unlike those poor, neurotic people who were always looking in mirrors and thinking that they were too big. What was too big, anyway? Who was to tell another person what size they should be? It was a form of dictatorship, by the thin, and she was not having any of it. If these thin people became any more insistent, then the more generously sized people would just have to sit on them. Yes, that would teach them! Hah!”

I have been unable to reconcile this description with the cake scene.  If Mma Ramotswe really does feel justified in being a traditionally built lady, why is language like temptation, confessed, and resist used to describe cake?

And while her question, "What was too big, anyway?" might be valid, why does she go on to judge thin people as poor and neurotic, accusing them of the dictatorship of the thin?

In the U.S., with an epidemic of obesity and an obsession with thinness, the messages are just as mixed up and confusing.  It would be easy for one to believe from the media that everyone in the U.S. is either obese or dangerously thin.  We all either need to be losing or gaining weight.  We are all weak and tempted and just need to resist the enemies, which arefood and our bodies. 

I believe that people who are unhealthily overweight would live a more fulfilled life if they were able to lose weight.  I believe that people who are unhealthily underweight would live a more fulfilled life if they were able to gain weight.

I believe that we would all live more fulfilled lives if there were not a gigantic scale that we used to measure our physical bodies, and therefore our "goodness" or "badness".

While I appreciate that the U.S. government and medical profession have launched campaigns in the war against obesity and the modeling world and advertisement professions have spoken out against the dangers of eating disorders, I hope expectantly for a day when the phrase "real women" is no longer used.

What is a "real woman"?
Do real women always have curves?
Are real women not the models who walk the runway? 
 I choose to answer the first question based on my Christian Mennonite beliefs and faith.

Real women are disciples of Jesus.

The rest of the questions don't really need to be answered.