The NYTimes Science section had an article a few months back about all our philosophy. The idea profiled in the article was that our conscious sense of morality is nothing more than a little man riding on the back of an elephant. The animal represents our actual urges, our intuitive moral sense. The little man is doing nothing more than trying to come to terms with what the elephant does. Thousands of years of philosophy have been devoted to the little man, much of it attempting to ignore the elephant.

Raised Mormon I was taught, as most religious people are, that the elephant is evil and must be controlled/subdued/destroyed. Having left religion I've come to agree with the observation that morality exists in spite of religion. That is to say that the elephant is not this a-moral animal wanting to rape, murder, steal, and destroy. No, the elephant is quite moral but is also very contradictory.

The elephant wants to get ahead at all costs. The elephant also wants to be fair and play by the rules. The elephant wants to be the best and brightest, it also wants to applaud the achievements of others and see that everyone gets acknowledged.

Meanwhile, the little man is holding on for dear life and trying to make sense of it all.

This came to my mind reading this in the NYTimes about gastrophiles who hit a wall of obesity, cholesterol, and diabetes. They all have some long philosophical explanation for food, eating, and why everyone else is wrong. But they all also had to accept that they were drowning in a quagmire of their own fat and had to do something about it. I've been there, I have some sympathy for them.

Its been 4 years since I started taking my health/weight-loss seriously and the man on the elephant analogy struck a cord with me. I remember going through all the whining/arguing/criticizing of all things "diet" but ultimately it was all a lot of fury and noise: i needed to force the elephant into submission.

And there's the problem: elephants don't submit very easily. In the end I have mostly just distracted the elephant, took advantage of its contradictory nature. The elephant really wants the shot of "happy" that comes from good food (as well as feeding the obsessive need to finish what is on my plate and validate the chef). It also wants the shot of "happy" that comes from looking good, feeling strong, or accomplishing physical feats. None of those are quite as good as the shot of "happy" from pizza, but they'll do in a pinch.

I won't begrudge people having philosophies about carbs, fat, cholesterol, or exercise but like all philosophers they are spending a lot of time and effort talking about the little man and ignoring the elephant.