One of the strangest and most difficult aspects of interacting with other people is discovering those areas which you consider to be so basic, so foundational, so obvious that you don't even think about them—until you run up against someone for whom they are not basic, and maybe not even important.
For me one of those givens is that you don't take food from a common dish and then put it back, and if your hands touch something on a common plate you take it, even if you didn't mean to. Thus I find it particularly unnerving to watch at church potlucks, or <shudder> restaurant buffet bars, as folks violate those maxims repeatedly and egregiously, with no consideration for those behind them in line. I'm not speaking particularly of children here; the adults are just as likely, sometimes more so, to be the offenders.
This raises two questions: Is this really a matter of fundamental hygiene and common courtesy, or merely a particular, culture-specific custom? I do hope not the latter, or I may have to stop eating away from home.
and
What are the habits that seem perfectly normal and natural to me, yet cause in others the stomach-turning reaction I experienced this morning?Permalink
Category Health Children & Family Issues Everyday Life
