The Picky Eater

 

“You are so picky when it comes to food,” I told my younger son.  “And a lot of your food likes and dislikes seem arbitrary.”

“What do you mean?”  Elliot asked, a little defensively.

“Well, you like cupcakes, but won’t eat muffins,” I said.

“That’s because cupcakes are better than muffins,” he said.

“It should depend on the ingredients,” I said.  “But once you make a statement like that, you can’t really argue about it.  Another example is that you won’t eat pancakes unless they have blueberries in them.  Plain pancakes need not apply.  But waffles are OK.”

“Pancakes without blueberries are just gross,” Elliot said.

“They’d probably taste better if you put some syrup on them,” I suggested.

“Why would I do that?  I don’t like syrup,” he countered.

Checkmated at last, I fell silent.  Apparently, my son’s dietary idiosyncrasies were completely reasonable.

Now, I am as aware as anyone that the old Roman proverb, “de gustibus non est disputandum” applies in these sorts of situations.  That is to say, there is no arguing over taste.  The fact that I don’t like the taste and texture if eggs is a fact of life and no amount of debate will convince me otherwise.

That said, I am convinced that many of my son’s dietary decisions have more to do with weird mental blocks he has with certain foods rather than with actual taste.

I am afraid that many times we are locked into poor paths, not because of actual restrictions, but because of things we just don’t want to do.  The sad thing is that we often miss out on much that is beautiful because we aren’t willing to make the effort to break out of the pattern set before us by our rigid thinking.

A life well lived is one in which people are willing to try things outside the box of their expectations.  For, the man who chooses not to eat muffins, simply because they aren’t cupcakes will miss out on an awful lot of breakfast goodness.