breakfast

I had this for breakfast the other day. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see this?






1) The first thing that came to my mind was 'sickle cell anemia.' hahaha My life sciences brain was up and running pretty early in the morning. But wouldn't you agree that the cheerio in the spoon was the exact shape for which the blood disease was named after? And you know the shape of the cereal resembles the biconcave feature of normal cells........
Well, this made me realize how much our background influences the way we look at things, how we interpret the things that happen to us. That's why my mind linked cereal to biological disorders. So when I'm in Honduras, I'll be in a different culture, but I will have also brought my Chinese Canadian perspective with me. That's not a bad thing. I just need to remember that I do have a certain worldview with me and it'll be interesting to see how that shows up in the way I interpret my experiences there.

2) So I tried to analyze my cereal from a less nerdy view, and I came to my next conclusion: 'stereotyping.' Why did I single this one cheerio out? Because it was different from the rest. Is that fair? Is it not still a cheerio with the same delicious fusion of whole grain oat and hint of honey? Yet, because it LOOKS different we conclude that there is something wrong. You know, it's really narrow to just study the cereal as cereal. There's the higher level: General Mills, which made it into what it is. haha I'm going to stop now or I might start ranting about structural violence ingrained in cereal (pun intended).

3) Then I realized that should just be happy that I had breakfast in the first place. I chose Honey Nut Cheerios from a variety of different cereals in the cupboard in the morning. And I had a nice glass of 2% milk with it - pasteurized. I have the opportunity of getting adequate fibre and iron and zinc and B12 to the point that sometimes overnutrition is more common here. The more I thought the more blessed I felt :)

4) And then my natural instincts took over my brain and I consumed the cereal. Yes, even the sickle shaped one.