My youngest daughter, Lorelei, has a peel aversion. She is ruthless in her disdain, and the peel of most anything really will simply not be tolerated; blueberries, grapes, cucumbers, apples, pickles (yes, I know it’s another version of cucumber but still she will not budge), even pears. Pears feel egregious to me; those have more of a skin, but still, she will not deviate in the matter, and if questioned, she will simply reply, “They get stuck in my teeth and are…horrible.”
The other day, I put a bowl of blueberries in front of her and watched her little fingers and teeth separating the teeny tiny bits of fruit from the teeny tiny thinnest piece of peel. The quiet, peaceful dedication she brought to the task was astonishing. She sat there for half an hour and was completely unapologetic. I kept coming back into the room and asking a bit exasperatedly if she was “done yet?”, to which she would just swing her legs under her chair a few times, nibble devotedly, and reply “no, not yet.”
It’s in these moments that I am ruthlessly reminded by the universe how deeply, painfully impatient I am.
I suddenly have an irrational desire to grab a handful of the blueberries off her plate and shove them into my mouth. Of course, I don’t do this. Instead, I sit down and watch her - like it’s some kind of exposure therapy. Watching someone eat a bowl of blueberries, peeling them one by one, without snatching the plate and huffing into the kitchen is the test, and every day I’m trying to get a passing grade.
Thats amazing!
Wow. Kids are so strange and interesting and sensitive. I’m going to try to peel a blueberry sometime.