Moldy Food — A Moral Story About Lack

2026-08-11

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🔑 The Mouldy Viennas

There are some stories that begin with a grand adventure.

This isn’t one of them.

This story begins with an empty cupboard.

It was Monday, and there wasn’t much food around. Hunger has a funny way of making even the smallest possibility of food feel like a major event.

Then came the news.

Nico had been given some viennas by his mother, and he thought they might help.

For a brief moment, hope arrived.

Food!

Maybe Monday wasn’t going to be quite as bad as expected.

Then came the closer inspection.

The viennas were mouldy.

Hope had arrived…

but apparently it had been sitting in a cooler bag since Friday.

And so, in one magnificent moment of irony:

Hope had gone mouldy.

😄 There Had To Be A Laugh Somewhere

Now, there is something important about laughing at a situation like this.

It isn’t because hunger is funny.

It isn’t.

Lack isn’t funny either.

But sometimes life becomes so ridiculous that if you cannot find a little humour in it, the frustration can become overwhelming.

So we laughed.

Not because the situation was good.

Because sometimes laughter is one of the few things that doesn’t cost anything.

The mouldy viennas became a joke.

Then the joke became a cartoon.

And the cartoon became a story.

And the story became something worth sharing.

😔 The Serious Part

Behind the joke is something much more serious.

People who experience poverty are often treated as though their circumstances somehow define them.

They don’t.

Being short of money doesn’t make someone lazy.

Having an empty cupboard doesn’t make someone worthless.

Needing help doesn’t make someone a failure.

And being hungry doesn’t mean you’ve stopped trying.

Lack is a circumstance. It is not an identity.

That distinction matters.

A person can have very little and still possess imagination, intelligence, skill, dignity, faith, humour and enormous potential.

Sometimes all that is missing is opportunity.

Sometimes what is missing is simply enough food for today.

Neither situation determines the value of the person experiencing it.

🔥 The Moral

The moral of the mouldy viennas is simple:

Don’t confuse what a person has with who a person is.

A poor person is not a poor human being.

A hungry person is not a worthless person.

Someone going through a difficult season has not necessarily failed.

They may simply be fighting a battle that isn’t visible from the outside.

And sometimes the strongest thing a person can say is:

“Things are bad today, but I’m still here.”

🛠️ From Mouldy Viennas To PlebWare

There is another lesson hidden inside this ridiculous little story.

The same man who could sit staring at an empty cupboard can also sit down and build something.

That something is PlebWare.

While circumstances may say:

“You don’t have enough.”

The creator inside says:

“Let’s build with what we’ve got.”

That’s an important philosophy.

You don’t always start with money.

You don’t always start with resources.

You don’t always start with perfect circumstances.

Sometimes you start with an old computer, a few ideas, determination, faith, and a willingness to keep learning.

Then you build.

One article.

One line of code.

One image.

One idea.

One day at a time.

🌱 What The Viennas Taught Me

The viennas were unusable.

But the experience wasn’t.

That’s the strange thing about life.

Sometimes something can go completely wrong and still produce something worthwhile.

A bad meal became a story.

The story became a cartoon.

The cartoon became a message.

And the message is bigger than the viennas:

Lack isn’t a disease.

It isn’t contagious.

It isn’t shameful.

It isn’t a permanent definition of who you are.

It is simply something you may be passing through.

And while you’re passing through it, keep building.

Keep learning.

Keep creating.

Keep believing.

Keep going.

Because the cupboard may be empty today…

but that doesn’t mean the future has to be empty too.

🔑 Moral of the Story

Don’t let what you lack convince you that you lack worth.

The mouldy viennas were rubbish.

The lesson wasn’t.

And perhaps that is the funniest part of all.

We didn’t get a meal from those viennas.

But somehow…

we got a story.

🗡️ ‘God’s Journalist’ in conjunction with ‘ChatGPT .’ and the ‘Holy Spirit’