The other day I wrote a blog about coffee and I brought up the question: what is moderation? I think moderation is in the eye of the beholder. When it comes to coffee, for me one cup in several months is moderate. But I understand that some people try to limit themselves to one cup a day and they look at that as moderate. To some people one glass of wine a day is moderate; to an ex-alcoholic one glass a day is way too much.
I think when it comes to talking about moderation we should not use it as a blanket idea that covers everything equally.
I think when it comes to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, or things that are not good for us like coffee, sugary drinks, and desserts, we need to alter what moderation means. And I think that if we've had a history with some of those things (like addiction) we again have to alter what the word moderation means.
So for different people, moderation should mean different things.
When someone says to me they eat chicken twice a week and that's "in moderation," to me that is excessive because I won't eat chicken - so even once a month is too much for me. I must confess that when people look me in the eye and they say, "Everything I do is in moderation," it is all I can do to keep from bursting out laughing in their face. Because they really have no idea what they're saying.
One drop of arsenic was Socrates death sentence. If that was one drop of water it wouldn't be enough, but one drop of arsenic was too much. So again I pose a question for you to think about: what does moderation mean? And should the idea of moderation be altered depending on what we're talking about?
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