Another post from my phone

[foxgrrl]

Something that I'm not sure of how to deal with, are people who are extremely reluctant to try anything new. Like if there is something that is special and wonderous for me, and I want to share it with someone, they'll be like "But what if I won't like that." and I'm like: "the future hasn't happened yet, and it's my favorite thing." and so I bring them to the special thing, and they complain biterly the whole time. Like if I bring them to my favorite restaurant, they go on and on about how horrible the food is. Because it's not just like McDonnalds. Or if I bring them hiking to my favorite woods, etc. They'll complain about the trees. Or complain about the sand at the beach, and all that horrible sunlight, etc.

I want to shake some sense into these people and tell them: "Listen! The person making your life horrible is you. You're the one calling everything horrible wherever you go."

What I really want if for them to enjoy themsevles and have fun.

EDIT: I was distracted and forgot to mention that from the moment the question is asked, they've alredy decided to hate it, long before the activity happens. (They'll go on and on about how horrible it's going to be.)

EDIT 2: This wasn't neccesarilly about just getting people to try new foods. There is an implicit message that underlies this mode of communication that the entire world should be absolutely safe and comfortable. Conversations will go like:
(Person travels thousands of miles to California for the first time.)
"Hey, have you ever seen the Pacific Ocean?"
"No"
"Would you like to?"
"Yes."
"Ok, well let's go now since it's the only opportunity before you leave."
"But what if your car breaks down?"
"Well, it's brand new, in good maintainence, has never had a failure to date, and I have roadside assistance anyway."
"But what if (some other unlikely problem)."
"(Not a problem)"
[Iterate pattern.]
"Ok let's do something else here while you have the opportunity. How about [local thingy]?
"But what if (another trivial problem)?"


Aargh, these arn't horribly grave problems, nor dangerous risks.

Comments

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I think it's normal to be like this in some arenas - I, for instance, am desperately uninterested in new food experiences. But being like that about everything is just... blah.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

*hug* :) I'm so glad you said it. :) I was biting my tongue not ranting about your eating habits. When we lived together, that was the one thing about you that just drove me completely utterly bonkers. :)

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

This is something that I deal with in three separate directions with my roomies. One can't do fish or vegetables (don't ask why) meaning her diet is basically strongly opposite mine. Another has a very limited range of food styles that she'll eat, most of which are things that just don't excite me at all. My wife is fairly flexible, but sometimes getting her to be adventurous in food is like pulling teeth from moai heads. (Usually, I just end up finding a situation in which she can get something comfortable and I get something 'crazy', and then convince her to try a little, and wait for her to decide it's a worthy experiment. I did this recently with borscht. She ended up liking it more than what she ordered.)

I guess I've just fallen into a pattern of offering some of what I'm having and accepting refusal. Still, it can be a pain in the butt when we try to coordinate food for all of us, and I'm tired of ending up at crappy generic chain restaurants. We're all driving each other nuts!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Hee. I am perfectly aware that I am annoyingly boring in my eating habits, and generally not open to experimentation! I am still a picky eater, and I don't think being really broke helped - I'm just not interested in experimentation; I'd rather have something I know I can eat without complicated work, or the risk of it being nasty but having to eat it anyway.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

, she said to the loon that just finished identifying yet another non-edible mushroom that she'd considered putting in her mouth...

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that while the majority of mushrooms aren't deadly poison and many are edible, the universe is filled with millions of the half-dozen non-edible-really-boring-types.

They're a lot like people in that regard.