Archive for July 25th, 2010
Only Ugly People Eat Mustard
About twelve years ago I was at a restaurant with one of my best friends and his four year old son.
He had ordered a burger his son and enthusiastically his son asked for him to put some mustard on for him. ‘No son’ he said ‘only ugly people eat mustard’. At the time I thought it was pretty funny and I made some remark about future therapy.
Not long ago I talked to my friend for the first time in a while. His son is graduating from High school and getting ready to go to collage. For some reason I remembered the mustard incident. To this day his son does not like mustard. The remarkable thing is he doesn’t know why.
The point is we have all been told lies. Most of the time these where told to protect us. Sometimes they where meant as jokes. Kids take most everything adults say very seriously. Sometimes they are just mistruths that someone passed on to them they didn’t even realize they are aren’t’ true or no longer apply. For instance; ‘All rich people are greedy’. Some rich people are the nicest people you will ever meet.
These things that people tell us shape our beliefs often without our even knowing it. Be careful what you tell your children and be very careful what you listen to.
