TASTE
FIRST: THE VALUE KNOWING BEFORE NOSHING
By
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Taste
does a great deal more than merely tantalize; it also transforms.
As
guardian of the body's principal portal of nutrition and hydration,
the value of that complex of interdependent senses perceived as
“taste” cannot be overstated! Know before you nosh, or consume,
in other words!
Through
a combination of senses: sight, visual; smell, olfactory; taste,
gustatory; and feel, tactile, this four-part, taste-complex of
senses: first perceives, assays; then accepts or rejects, what is
offered as food or drink.
“Taste
and see that the Lord is good,” Psalms 34:8, invites the
curious to try God as one would a new dish. “Blessed is the man
who takes refuge in him.”
This
scripture employs this sensory modality, taste, anagogically, much as
a parent would with new food for a child. The reward is blessedness
and filling.
So,
taste first! Whatever the undertaking, whomever the advocate, however
packaged, wherever presented: taste it first, to see if it is good to
you!
Sometimes,
one's society conditions and predisposes one's taste for against
food, beverages, fashions, values, people, narratives or beliefs
subliminally, unobtrusively. At other times, one forfeits or
subordinates one's own tastes for such things in exchange for
societal advancement or acceptance.
In
order to conform to a particular societal norm, one deludes one's
self and true tastes.
Here
again, the Bible is helpful. Romans 12: 2 says
Tasting
is transforming; not tasting is conforming. Be true to oneself. Taste
first! Know before you nosh!
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