If you eat enough meals with enough people the in-between-bite topic will surely turn to what you like. “You like corn?” “Ya, Fritos Scoops mostly.” “Do you eat potatoes?” “The French fry is one of the four basic food groups.” “How about cheese?” “I eat anything that you can squirt from a can.”
It seems we do a poor job, as parents, as an American society, as humans, preparing our kids to deal with adversity, to help them quickly (and without drama) get back up after life delivers a knock-down. It’s so natural to want to shield and insulate and protect. So as a collective, for entire generations, we’ve sheltered our children. Maybe that’s wrong. By trying to remove all risk, all hardship, maybe we have blunted important traits and skills needed for happiness, achievement, survival. I wonder.
He wears thongs (on his feet) virtually everywhere he goes but he’s never going to the beach. He wears them to a ball game even though it’s likely that beer will be spilled all around him and that he may need to wade through a men’s bathroom with overflowing piss troughs. On rainy days in February, he exposes his feet. He wears the cheapest sandals made when he’s out on the town, he wears them with Dockers, with gym shorts, he wears them horseback riding. If he needed to go to a construction site he’d wear them there and there’s no amount of potential dirt or fashion advice or public humiliation that can dissuade him because, well, he’s Flip-Flop Guy. If you pay attention in the course of daily life you’re sure to see him.