The More Things Change

Or, plus ca change, if you prefer the saying in its original language. It loses something if I'm not able to add the French accent marks. 

Never have I been able to swallow yogurt. From the container, as a food by itself, that is. Been cooking and baking with it for years. But the gag reflex against food that my evolutionary instincts tell me is spoiled - that's been a pretty strong reflex pretty much all my life. 

I have no idea if I was ever fed yogurt as a baby or toddler, although I suspect that it was not in my parents' grocery budget. I don't remember it being in the refrigerator, and I know that my mom has told me over the years that she likewise has never been able to get the stuff down. So, probably not.

As a vegetarian in college (because, come on, who hasn't?), I tried it - no go. And this was, at the time anyway, a little hippie college with a famous work-study program and a working farm. The vegetable gardens provided food for the cafeteria, and once in a while there would be a steak night. And invariably I would give away my ticket for a serving of steak, because I was new to being a vegetarian and still being, well, more comfortable with unwavering boundaries about it.


Of course, I am consuming a cup of yogurt as I write this. So what's changed?

I have. 


Pretty sure yogurt itself hasn't changed much, though there is a shameful variety on the market shelf where we shop. This is a Greek yogurt (the brand name translates as "house," no kidding) in the sub-category of "triple zero."  It's not as ideal for overall health as the unflavored yogurt would be. "Small moves, Ellie."* 

I'm eating the yogurt because my husband has been eating the yogurt. My husband has been eating the yogurt because our longtime family physician has taken off the gloves about weight loss and heart health for him. He's been supportive on my journey with weight loss and heart health, and now we both are striving for better. 

We both are striving for better not only for our own physical health; we also are striving for being better stewards of our household (there's that Greek word again!), our little patch of land (God's 1/3-acre?), and to live in "the harmony of our totality."**

Maybe, in time, one or both of us will find ourselves consuming the plain yogurt.  And I am reasonably certain that God is now giving that slow loving smile of a parent who has seen the child ... finally ... reach her own conclusions about "I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food."***

Yes, I know that yogurt involves milk. "Small moves, Ellie."

*Contact. By Carl Sagan. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
**Evensong. By Gail Godwin. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.
***Genesis 1:29, NRSV.