taste and see

I just finished a delectable lunch with Steve a couple of hours ago. He elaborated - as he always does when I ask - on the nuances of macrobiotics, the diet he and Alia are on. I know that John warned me at the start of the summer not to bring anything up about it, lest I be stuck for the next two hours hearing about how processed sugar clogs Steve's lungs, etc. But I am captivated; I am drawn to talk about it with him at least a tiny bit every time we eat together. I think he enjoys it because he imagines he may be winning over a proselyte. Not hardly. Yet I am interested... The morsel I took from it today was something that I kind of brought up. We were talking about acquired tastes, and how everyone is down on them, e.g. "If you have to acquire a taste for it, then it must not be good for ya to start with!" The items of discussion here are usually coffee, wine, sushi or, like, everything on Steve's diet. And about that logic I bring this up: we are giving way too much credit to our own sense of taste. If it's not immediately sweet and satisfying (so we think), we don't want it. We would take a sweet, processed oatmeal creampie over asparagus casserole anyday. But think about everything in life that you've had to acquire a taste for. It is usually more enjoyable, rich, deep, and substantive than anything your senses could've said you wanted at first. In fact, you may have been repulsed by it in the beginning. I think it is a picture of a deep reality. Things like eternal life, real love, grace and truth (especially truth) seem somewhat unsatisfying taken honestly on a surface level. I would much rather go with something I control and that I know works to satisfy me instantly, no matter how soon it wears off. But of course I would. Things of the eternal do not fit naturally within our human experience, therefore we have no real schema to fit them into that makes them immediately attractive. But once we taste and stay with them for an extended time, we see that everything else that always seemed so good and satisfying was just an impostor, a poser, and will never compare to the richness we have found. And we lose our taste for the cheap and the fake. So I finished my Black and Bleu Burger and wondered when I would start craving the real bread and wine at the Banquet. Now I'm headed for some coffee before the game, a wonderful acquired taste.