Overcoming Prejudice

Okay, raise your right hand right now and repeat after me. "I'm prejudiced." Okay, confession is good for the soul. You've got it out now. But you aren't alone. I also have to admit that I am prejudiced.

Recently, however, I have overcome a prejudice. Growing up, I remember that I absolutely hated...tomatoes. Okay, maybe that's not one of the more offensive prejudices in the world, but it was a prejudice nonetheless. I distinctly remember not liking them at all as I grew up. On one occasion, my mom even told me that I couldn't get up from my chair at lunch until I had eaten a small, cherry sized tomato. I took my glass of water and swallowed the thing whole, just to get it over with.

But about two years ago, I was confronted with my prejudice. I had just taken up running as both a hobby and a means of keeping fit. In the reading I was doing, there also was quite a bit about foods that were good for runners. One thing that kept coming up again and again were tomatoes. They have lots of good vitamins. They have antioxidants. They carry all sorts of good things for runners and their recovery.

So I started looking for ways to include tomatoes into my diet in less than obvious ways. Tomato sauce in dishes instead of whole tomatoes. Small slices on my sandwiches. But it seems like this is the way to start overcoming prejudice. If you expose yourself to something you dislike a little at a time, it seems that it starts to grow on you.

Tonight, I made one of my regular pasta dishes for myself. One part of that dish included 10 Roma tomatoes, cut up into fourths or sixths, and then put in with my sauce. After they cook, the tomato pieces are still obvious in the dish, as is the taste. And, to my recent surprise, I have really started to like the bites with a part of a tomato in it.

What prejudice do you have that you could work to overcome in this way? Take it one small step at a time, and you may come to love it just as much as I now like tomatoes.