A Post About "Pudding"

Of all the puddings that exist, I most prefer eating vanilla pudding.

I really dislike tapioca pudding.

At no point in my life did I say "Hmmm. Today I am going to choose to like vanilla pudding and I'm going to choose to not like tapioca pudding." I did not and cannot choose my pudding preference. No one in my life, however, has questioned my pudding preference or conducted a study on whether such preference is due to nurture or nature.

Now, while I cannot choose which pudding I most prefer, I can choose to eat many types of pudding. While I will very much enjoy vanilla pudding (and chocolate, and butterscotch, to be fair), the tapioca pudding and its associated gelatin balls within would make me gag. If given the option, I will choose to eat vanilla over tapioca every single time. No one in my life, however, has forced me to eat tapioca pudding or has even suggested that I eat pudding that doesn't taste good to me.

If tapioca were the only pudding option available, in fact, I would forego dessert entirely. However, I have found that tapioca is rarely the only pudding option on the buffet table. In fact, if tapioca, or any single type of pudding, were the only option it would make for one boring dessert bar. And, such a limited dessert bar would not possibly be expected to please all lovers of pudding.

Furthermore, most people understand that my love of vanilla pudding and consumption of it will not halt the making of any other type of pudding or will interfere with someone else's enjoyment of their favorite pudding. Some puddings are just classics and will stay around no matter how popular other puddings get. (And relatedly, no one has ever implied that my love of vanilla pudding has harmed, in some mysterious way, the production of tapioca pudding mini Snack-Packs.)


In sum, we all understand that calling vanilla pudding "pudding" in no way diminishes the category of all things "pudding."

Pudding is pudding after all. Even if it comes in a flavor you don't like. Call it pudding or call it "pudding." It's still the same thing.


Oh yes. I truly love my vanilla pudding.


[Coming soon to a blog near you: People Who Choose To Do Things Left-Handed]