7-9 Servings A Day

Thursday, January 15, 2026

I ate the fruit.

In the Garden of Eden myth, humans are created innocent—ignorant in the literal sense. Blissfully. Then a snake comes along and says, hey folks you’re missing out. Shit is going down and you’re missing it. You don’t know but you should know. So go ahead and eat the fruit from that tree, the tree that Knows, and your eyes will open.

As a kid, I enjoyed a normal white middle class American life. Occasional trips to different places of interest. Family traditions like watching the Sound of Music or The Wizard of Oz. Angel food birthday cake. I never worried about food, shelter, or clothing. Every year my grandmother would take us shopping for new school clothes, which would be supplemented by Christmas gifts that were also clothes. My other grandparents had a big swimming pool and so every summer the family would gather regularly for swimming and grilling and hanging out.

I went a long time without eating that fruit. I nibbled on occasion. I knew kids in Africa were starving and that upset me. I knew some people were racist, but I was…”colorblind.” I knew some of my classmates didn’t get breakfast at home, and ate a subsidized lunch. But the extent and depth of these things were unknown to me. I enjoyed life with distant relatives visiting and playing games and telling stories. They weren’t, seemingly, bothered by the world.

Now I’ve maybe overindulged in the fruit. I see all of it, all the time. It’s inescapable. It makes me want to cease to exist—literally to go poof into nothingness. I “know” now, what I didn’t for a long time. And because I cannot do much of anything about it all, I long for the days of ignorance. Blissful indeed…the ultimate privilege.