“Ew!”
My daughter made a face when her brother picked up a nut he dropped and popped it into his mouth. He looked at her face and said “What?” I couldn’t help giggling and just said to her that it wouldn’t kill him.
Although I don’t encourage them to pick things up from the floor and put it into their mouth, the instant reaction against ‘dirty thing’ makes me think.
Speaking of “Ew!”, do you know that some ancient Romans rubbed crocodile dung on their faces to soften their skin? Do you know there is much more faecal bacteria on a typical chopping board and in a kitchen sink compared to the average toilet seat?
Regardless the true dirtiness of the place, most people who feel filthy when they touch the toilet seat won’t have the same reaction when they use a cutting board. And, with the dirtier cutting board than your toilet seat, probably you hardly have any food poisoning.
I used to be really fussy about clearness but I became more relaxed as my belief of cleanness was more subjective and irrational. Having children was another breaking point of my paranoia. I now consider a little bit of dirt is actually good to help improving our immune system.
We all have such subjective belief about something. You can’t help reacting to something you believe is not pleasant.
Why? Because it is true that it is not pleasant to you. For my daughter, floor is so dirty that she can’t put the food dropped onto such a dirty thing into her mouth at all. That is fair.
But I mentioned her not to say “Ew!” so carelessly. How about if we had not enough food? Probably she wouldn’t waste anything eatable just because it fell onto the reasonably clean floor. And there are people who are really in such a situation in the world. When she sees those people trying hard to survive, will she say “Ew!” to them?
How about something dirty like the messed up sewing pipe or stinky garbage bag? They are definitely not pleasant. And there are people who take care of such things. Will you say “Ew!” when they come and take care of your dirty things? It is totally disrespectful.
Disliking something is fine. We all have something we can’t handle. That is fine. We all have some weakness.
Just remember there are people who compensate your weakness. A garbage track comes and pick up your garbage. A cleaning lady cleans up the floor and toilet for you.
Directly and indirectly, you are benefitted by their contribution.
Not only something disgusting, we have many things we can’t do very well. It can be cooking, sawing, painting, fishing, public speaking, financial management, etc. Someone else compensate your weakness, sometimes as service, sometimes as a pure kindness.
You also become the provider when you can compensate someone else’s weakness. That’s how we help each other and support each other in this world.
When you feel negative about something, it is your weakness. Recognize it. When you are aware of what you can’t do well, you can appreciate those who compensate your weakness. When you realize how unpleasant a stinky garbage bag is to you, you can appreciate the man who collects it for you. You will respect him taking such a hard work.
Respect comes from the recognition of you. Including your weakness, recognize what you are in the world. When you see what you don’t have, you start seeing the value of what you get.