So hey:
Like most people, I like what I like. I like canned peas and candy corn and hard cheeses. I like plain chicken breasts with a little bit of salt. I like Diet Dr Pepper and I like blueberries and I like popcorn.
Like most people, I like what I like. I like canned peas and candy corn and hard cheeses. I like plain chicken breasts with a little bit of salt. I like Diet Dr Pepper and I like blueberries and I like popcorn.
I also like things that aren't food! I like My Little Ponies (generation one) and I like ball-jointed dolls and I like collectible pins and I like blind boxes. I like big towels and too many pillows and American Girl doll furniture.
Maybe you like all these things, too! Maybe you like none of these things! Maybe, like most people, you're somewhere in the middle, positive toward some things, negative toward others, neutral toward many.
And that's cool, 'cause you've got your own list, and I bet it contains things I don't like and things I don't care about alongside things I also like. What a wonderful world this is, to contain so many things.
But you know what none of the things I like, from candy corn to collectibles, are doing? What none of them are intended or designed to do?
None of them are hurting you.
None of them are hurting you.
The response to "oh my gosh hooray yum I got a CANDY CORN CAKE for my birthday, baked and crafted by someone who cares about me" should not be "ew gross I hate candy corn." Did I invite you to my birthday dinner? If no, why does it matter if you hate candy corn?
I am not a big fan of babies. I don't tell every parent who has a baby to show off "ew yuck gross I don't want it." I admire the babies. I tell them they have so many bones. I enjoy how happy (or confused) this makes their parents.
I am not a big fan of a lot of things. I am a very picky person. And if you offer me those things, I will decline, politely at first, then less politely if you insist. But you don't need to worry about finding me in your kitchen, judging your birthday cake.
Could we maybe just...not? With the drive-by yucking of other people's yums? My candy corn cake hurt absolutely no one. It was delicious. But gosh and golly, did some people hurt my feelings by going on (at length) about how disgusting it was.
Didn't invite you to my party, old sport. And I guess now we have a pretty solid reason why not.
