Why? Who knows!!!

(…I think I’m running out of ideas…)

No, really, just stick with me for a minute here.

A few months ago, I saw a persimmon at the store for the first time. I thought about buying it and trying it, but I’ll be honest—I was scared that:

• a) I wouldn’t know how to eat it.
• b) It would be gross and I’d have wasted three bucks.
• c) It would be a subpar experience as compared to eating a fresh one off the tree (which we can’t get here in Canada, as far as I know).

As a result, I still haven’t tried a persimmon. And that’s too bad, because looking back, those were really dumb reasons for not trying something I was curious about. My idiot brain, should it have been working properly, neglected to realize that:

• a) The internet will gladly tell me THOUSANDS of ways to eat a persimmon.
• b) Three bucks is a small price to pay for potentially finding a new favorite food; plus, how often do I spend three dollars on a new food like that? Never. Once isn’t going to bankrupt us.
• c) DUH. Of course a piece of fruit that ripens on the truck is going to be subpar to one eaten right from the tree, but it’s the same thing with berries in the store in winter, and I still buy those…

Moral of the story? (Well, besides that Faith spends way too much time thinking about fruit in the grocery store.)

I think it’s that, when it comes to new things, it’s really easy to rationalize away why we shouldn’t or can’t or won’t do something. But if we’d just take half a second and think about the excuses we’re making—and admit that we’re just stalling because we’re scared or nervous or anxious—we’ll realize that none of those excuses actually hold water, and there are plenty of ways to break down the barriers (that in many cases aren’t actually real barriers at all, just mental walls we’ve built for one reason or another).

Don’t miss out on life’s experiences! Eat that persimmon!!! Or, uh, whatever it is you’re rationalizing yourself out of.