My college-age daughter called me the other day to discuss a Youtuber who decided to switch gears, suddenly, and denounce her Veganism. My daughter is a Vegan. Troubled by the Youtuber’s reasoning, my daughter insisted that the former Vegan was “doing it all wrong.”
I listened, intently, as she rattled on. When she finally did take a breath, I piped up with the following words:
“The older I get, the more I believe in ‘intuitive eating’. It’s uncomplicated and as natural to human beings as you can get. Makes eating easy.”
No sooner did I get those words out of my mouth, when my daughter cried:
“No way, Mom. Shut up! I just heard about ‘intuitive eating’. I can’t believe you said that. I agree. Just seems too simple.”
We chatted for a bit longer on the topic. All the while, though, I couldn’t help but think “how complicated young adults make their lives.”
Exiting childhood, we move as far away from simplicity as possible, only to return back to it again usually around age fifty. What was once considered the “unobstructed mind of a child” is now termed “wisdom.” Thankfully, we live longer today than ever before, allowing us to maximize this newfound insight, accordingly.
I wish we had the capacity to learn this lesson sooner. Unfortunately, Western civilization seems to rebuke such learning until we are, selectively, good-n-ready. Then we forgo the hurdles we’ve erected for ourselves – both deliberately and foolishly – and trade them in for a simpler existence and mindset. Some of us adopt “intuitive eating” while others do something entirely different, but simple nonetheless. I say this both literally and metaphorically, of course.
We come full-circle, whereupon, we realize that being told to “Shut up” by your kid can actually be a very good thing. A simpler way of complimenting one’s Mom for “staying ahead of the game,” there isn’t.
Maybe there is hope, after all. I think Confucius would agree.