Get a Taste for It

You know, people in Norway have a taste for fish preserved in all kinds of -- er, creative ways. People in Mexico have a taste for wonderful things like tamarind and chilis. You probably have a taste for at least one thing that your friends or your mate don't understand. People get a taste for something by having it around as they grow up and learn their culture from the people around them. They observe others seeking out and enjoying a taste or a sensation or an experience; like a delicacy at a feast, or a ritual practice, or a kind of music.

Sometimes you get a taste for something that you discover on your own, and since you like it, then you seek it out and enjoy it etc. Either way, the process is basically the same.

Americans, collectively, are losing their taste for many things we used to like, at our own risk. Maybe we don't see it, because it's hard to step back and see the effects of small things on the whole next wave. You really have to be paying attention to that stuff to see it.

But there are things in our world, even our fucked-up grim and oppressive world, that have the power to make us happy against all reason and seemingly out of proportion to their relative importance. Look for this. This is a clue.

You know that song you have loved since you first heard it, maybe in high school? You know that dumb thing you love to do even though you may look goofy to the untrained eye? (for me, it's riding a bike. I only learned how to do it five years ago, and I have SO much fun, it's a sin!) Think about it. You know there is something that makes you feel good in a clean way; none of that nagging sick feeling mixed in the pleasure like when you eat a Big Mac. You know when you're watching TV, and someone on TV does something where you go, "Oh now dude, that is fucked up!" The reason you say that is because it IS fucked up, and you know you shouldn't be laughing. And it's not just because It's Wrong. It's because each time you do that, you are learning to like your ice cream with a little dogshit mixed in.