28 October 2009

Lessons on Life

"Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!" ~  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Lesson time again while driving to school this morning.   We were talking about food, one of our favorite subjects, and I asked Nia if she liked chicken... again, since she tends to change her mind about food from one day to the next.  It's very challenging for me as a mother to figure out what to feed her at times because what I think she enjoys today, suddenly becomes a "dislike" the next day.   My goal was to ascertain what would be ok to make for her lunch today and feel confident that she would eat it.

She said she liked chicken and then added that one of her friends in school thinks chicken is "DISGUSTING."   I know this friend well, and I know that he and his very lovely family are VEGETARIANS and so they do not eat meat which I explained to Nia.  They asked me "why" would anyone not want to eat meat?  From there, my darling "foodie" son chimed in to say, "well, if you don't eat meat, you don't fit in well with the rest of the world."

Thus the lesson got underway, and I proceeded to explain to the children that a true human being only needs to FIT in by being a GOOD person, treating people the way they want to be treated.  We don't judge one another based on how we dress, what we eat, what music we like, etc.   The true joy of human interaction, is being able to accept one another for our differences and appreciate the diversity of being able to live, love and continually learn TOGETHER.

We spoke some more and they realized that the person (well at least for this morning) that they would most enjoy being is themselves, able to choose what they like, do what they want, and be around people who accept them for who they are.   They also want to be able to choose their friends based on the friends being fun to be with, kind, respectful, loving and giving.  And, if they have similarities, that just makes it even more exciting!  They seemed like they were noticeably content with this morning's "Lesson on Life," as they joyfully jumped out of the car and dashed into school!  



We love to explore glorious FOOD (well, at least the "Foodie" child of mine and I do) , and over time,  we will further learn that the world's culinary experience FITS just nicely into our palate whether or not it includes meat or not... LOL!



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