We humans enjoy a weird bunch of stuff. Beer. Modern Art. Blue Cheese. Hiking. Opera. Especially Opera – that has to be the craziest art form anyone can enjoy, right?
But these things grow on us over time. The more we spend time with something weird, the more we enjoy it, even if, at first, we didn’t like it. Acquired tastes are all around us. I’m pretty sure everyone of us has acquired a taste for something that others find weird or off-putting.
To ever get to the actual enjoyment of an acquired taste, we have to suspend our initial rejection of the new thing. We have to be curious and give it time. And we’ll usually be rewarded by the awesomeness of something new we’ve learned to enjoy.
But what if we just stay on the defensive and never try something new? We’ll be poorer for it. If we stay in tribes that reject each other’s tastes outright, our experience will be limited forever.
With society more polarized, I find it harder these days to be open to new tastes – in all meanings of the word. That includes new thoughts & concepts. For me, that makes it even more important now to suspend our immediate and total rejection and give other humans some time.
And while I’ll always reject some concepts (intolerance, for example), I also learned quite a bit by suspending my defensiveness and open my ears to the worries of the currently protesting farmers (here in Germany).
Also, I’ll probably never learn to enjoy Opera … it’s not for me.