Sanctimony

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http://leahmarie-unpunctuated.blogspot.com/  

This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about the last few weeks.  It began when I was searching the internet for dairy free recipes.  I came across a lot of “healthy food” recipe type sites.  There was a common theme.  I kept running against it again recently because I was looking for different ideas on dehydrating some veggies in my dehydrator.

The whole theme kinda went like this:

One of our favorite meals is ratatouille as made by Eric Ripert.  Now, if you were to ask about it I’d probably give you a quick rundown of the recipe like this:

onion 
red bell pepper 
banana pepper 
garlic 
tomatoes 
eggplant 
etc. etc.

But, if I were a health food blogger I would have typed it like this (and this is, in fact, what we usually use):

organic onion 
organic red bell pepper 
organic banana pepper (when they are in season) 
organic garlic 
organic… blah, blah, blah

I can’t even finish typing that up its so irritating.  I’m trying to illustrate a point here, but I also kind of want to punch myself in the face for how obnoxious that second list is.

Listen, we buy organic.  We buy organic local when possible.  But it’s never occurred to me to be nearly as proud of myself for it as the people that I ran across on these health food websites.  I kept wanting to leave comments like:

Dear healthy food recipe giver,

Making sure I know that you’re eating organic kale doesn’t, in fact, affect the recipe your sharing with me AT ALL.  You’re just being smug.

Thanks for the recipe,

Me.

Its not just foodies that behave this way.  I’ve often commented on it when looking at parenting sites/forums.  I think the one that gets me the most is the forum area of mothering.com.  It doesn’t matter if I agree with what is being discussed or not.  It’s the WAY these women discuss their parenting choices that make me crazy.  They are just so self-righteous about it.  It’s not just moms at mothering.com, though.  I’ve also run across some pretty pious baby wise method users, and I’m not sure any two approaches to parents could be more different than what is generally discussed at mothering.com and in baby wise communities.  (My parenting style is more in line with those at mothering.com, for the record.)

And, of course, the same thing exists in politics.  But, that’s just about the most obvious, and you probably don’t need examples there.  Its also the area where I’m most likely to be pious, myself.  (Sometimes I am overly proud of my Masters degree in Public Administration.  I do, in general, know more about politics than the average person.  Or maybe I just want to feel like the student loan debt is worth it.)

I’m sure you could think of examples from other areas of life as well.

I’ve decided there are two problems at work here.

First:

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again (over and over and over), it seems to be pretty common to decide that what you’re doing in your life and for your family is also the best thing for all of earth’s 9 billion human inhabitants.  This is a stupid, arrogant, and narrow-minded way to view the world. 

Second:

When entering into a conversation with someone else, do not assume that you are the expert and they are there to learn from you.  Maybe write the following down somewhere you can see it often, to be reminded:

Conversation = informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc. 

Lecture = a speech read or delivered before an audience or class, especially for instruction or to set forth some subject. 

If you are making the assumption that you make the choices you do because you are more knowledgeable on the subject than someone who chooses differently, you are almost certainly being totally obnoxious. 

I normally don’t promote my blog posts, but maybe you should share this one with your friends.  If we spread the word, we could make the world a less irritating better place.

That is all.