Leviticus meditations: Dispensations

So, I nearly made it through the whole month following the dietary laws (aside from the Burrito Incident which gave rise to TWO posts) but yesterday I slipped up. Actually, it wasn't even a slip-up. It was a deliberate decision when I had an acceptable option right in front of me. And yet I don't feel bad about it.

Right after giving blood I moseyed over to Au Bon Pain for lunch and made a beeline for the vegetarian soups like a good girl. But I wasn't feeling so hot and the pot of chicken noodle seemed like a MUCH better idea. So that's what I did.

(It's always tricky to judge your own motivations but I'm reasonably confident here because I really like the carrot-ginger and would usually choose that over the chicken noodle, Leviticus or no. Trying to be as objective as possible, I do think my body was looking to replenish something it had just lost.)

I talked to my Consultant about this. He says I absolutely, without question, needed to go with the carrot-ginger. Just about all rules are waived in order to save a life. But that's it. "Saving a life" gets interpreted very broadly, as it should, but there's no way I was going to keel over from the carrot-ginger soup so that's what I should have done.

I grew up Catholic and am familiar with dietary disciplines, on a lesser scale. But we also had the idea of "dispensations." As a general rule, avoid eating meat on this day ... but not if you're sick, or very young or very old, or there's some overriding event (post-funeral luncheons is one that comes up a lot). A discipline may generally be a good idea, but life is not one-size-fits-all and exceptions should be made.

Now these dispensations can get abused. Anybody remember the hubbub that ensued a few years ago when the then-brand new Archbishop refused to grant a dispensation from Lenten disciplines on Fenway Park opening day, simply because that happened to fall on Good Friday and he thought Good Friday should trump baseball? The nerve! I also remember my high school having a fundraising festival on a Friday evening in Lent and our chaplain (a good guy, who I respected very much) was going around granting dispensations -- they'll sell a lot more pizza if people can get the pepperoni instead of just plain cheese. Really, people.

Still, just because abuses exist does not mean that the underlying idea is baseless. I think this is a pretty legitimate one. So I gave myself a dispensation and am not worrying about it.

What sayeth the tribe? Is this a sensible and reasonable approach or simply opening the door to justify anything and everything?