Eating Acorns

by Ernie Stanley

I found it comical that many in the class attempted to eat acorns for the first time in their life. Having been the atypical trouble-maker as a kid, I always ate stuff I probably wasn't supposed to. Grass, leaves, acorns, even a few nasty berries. Pretty much anything that I saw an animal I liked eat I considered possible food (I had the good sense to not imitate household pets, thankfully). Thus my taste-knowledge is quite comprehensive.

Perhaps logically then the acorn bread was not unfamiliar to me. However, I question why this was unfamiliar to the rest of the class and society. Why are we told not to eat things that drop on the ground, like acorns and leaves? Well, for one they're not the most tasty of things, but I think there is a larger more powerful notion at work here. I think we're afraid of dirt. Thus we have these profane games like the 5-second rule and the notion that we need to disinfect our environment.

However, we now have a huge increase in the appearance of cancer and viral/bacterial infections. Despite all our scientific know-how we are becoming weaker and more frail. Perhaps it is time to stop libeling dirt as nasty (though it is quite dirty). After all, everything solid-based we have has been dirt or dust at one point.