One thing I have noticed about incompatible lifestyles is attempting to understand and coexist harmoniously is often not mutual. After reading an interesting post on the klaT network I decided to write this post, to address how the topic is approached in this particular locale.

During the years I have been in this locale, I have known people in three different "categories": those who have little or nothing; those who had nothing but eventually acquired; and those who have gone through life with "everything handed to them." All three groups have the same approach to wastefulness; and have the mistaken opinion that I am somewhere between picky and downright odd. I started noticing this approach as soon as I arrived in this area. There were people in all age groups who, when having a plateful of something, would take a bite or two and then throw the rest in the garbage can, or simply walk away and leave it.

Whether a meal was in their own homes, someone else's home, or a restaurant, pickiness was a matter of wastefulness. It seems poor people and formerly-poor people look at wastefulness as a way of "proving" they are better off than they actually are; and those who have never lacked anything have the attitude "Someone will buy me more." In contrast, I have always had the viewpoint that wastefulness is wrong-- in general, the viewpoint "You, or someone else, worked hard to earn the money to buy these things," and when it comes to food and meals, there is the added factor "Someone put their time into preparing the meals." To me, it is all about appreciation.

Trying new foods in restaurants holds no appeal to me. Unless something sounds particularly interesting, I am rarely tempted to try something new. The reason for this is restaurants rarely offer customers the option of ordering "a small serving," or "only a little." If this does not seem to make sense, it is nothing more nor less than the approach I have always had toward food: If I take or order something, I finish it. Whether in a restaurant or a home, the idea "Oh, I don't like it-- so I'll throw it away" is wrong. I have known people who sometimes went hungry when they were children, as well as those who were literally forced to eat foods that made them sick. Fortunately, I was never in either of those positions.

However, my parents, friends' parents, and other older people had the approach that if you put something on your plate, you eat it. I was never given the "There are starving children in the world" speech; it was just basic common sense. Frankly, I think it makes much more sense than "take or order a quantity of food, and if you decide you don't like it then toss it out."