Monday, August 02, 2004
Pavlovian Snicker Bar
O.K. Most of you don't know this, but I don't eat Snicker Bars - until now anyway, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Once upon a time when I was about 10 years old I bit into a Snickers Bar and a sharp pain shot through my head like an ice bullet. Yikes! I didn't know it at the time, but I can only guess that it was a cavity giving way to an exposed nerve or something. Anywho, that pain was enough for me to swear off Snicker Bars (or any candy bar that is the same consistency).
Wierd how something so seemingly small can be so tramatic as to shape my eating habits for the next 25 years. Well, a quarter century later I just went to the cafeteria, and there at the checkout line was an assortment of candy (Snicker Bars included). I decided to give it a second chance, and "yup" the little bar didn't even make it back to my office. Yummy!
Animals have this instinct for learning behavior. If they *almost* get hit by a car, they're shy of cars for the rest of their lives. It's a survival thing. When the same behavior moves its way to the humans - it's called phobia or neurosis. Confession: I could feel the pain in my mouth whenever I thought about eating a Snickers Bar, but the fear was mis-founded. I should've been afraid of cavities or exposed nerves.
There's a lesson to be learned here - and not just about candy or the need for regular brushing. Perhaps we act in certain ways in given situations as a reaction to the outcome of a similar situation. A degree of logic must be applied if I am to progress along the path of the upright.
Fittingly, the pictures for the day revolve around food from the cruise (will I EVER run out of cruise pictures?)
That's ice???
Watermelon
Yup, that's ice...
Cold cuts
Wierd how something so seemingly small can be so tramatic as to shape my eating habits for the next 25 years. Well, a quarter century later I just went to the cafeteria, and there at the checkout line was an assortment of candy (Snicker Bars included). I decided to give it a second chance, and "yup" the little bar didn't even make it back to my office. Yummy!
Animals have this instinct for learning behavior. If they *almost* get hit by a car, they're shy of cars for the rest of their lives. It's a survival thing. When the same behavior moves its way to the humans - it's called phobia or neurosis. Confession: I could feel the pain in my mouth whenever I thought about eating a Snickers Bar, but the fear was mis-founded. I should've been afraid of cavities or exposed nerves.
There's a lesson to be learned here - and not just about candy or the need for regular brushing. Perhaps we act in certain ways in given situations as a reaction to the outcome of a similar situation. A degree of logic must be applied if I am to progress along the path of the upright.
Fittingly, the pictures for the day revolve around food from the cruise (will I EVER run out of cruise pictures?)
That's ice???
Watermelon
Yup, that's ice...
Cold cuts
