white rice and butter

A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine and somehow we got to talking about eating rice. I don't know if it's just my family's Caribbean roots or what, but for as long as I can remember, we've eaten plain white rice with butter as a side dish for just about any meal. Oh we're having chicken? Let's have some rice. What goes well with fish? hmm...how about some rice? Oh steak you say? Yep-- you guessed it; we're having rice. Now this isn't a diatribe about how delicious and versatile rice is (although it really is) and it isn't me proclaiming that rice is by far the king of side dishes. I just wanted to share how this encounter made me realize that people can look at the same thing (plain white rice with butter) and view it completely differently.

When I said to my friend, man I could really go for some rice and butter right now, he responded by saying that nobody eats plain rice with butter. He then went on to tell me that it was weird to eat rice without some kind of gravy or other topping. But to me the idea of not eating rice with butter seemed just as preposterous. I mean seriously, who doesn't eat rice with butter? So to prove to him that I was not the only person on the planet to like eating rice and butter I took a poll of people who we happened to encounter together. Turns out he's the weird one after all and more people do eat plain white rice. But this whole deal got me thinking...why is it that people assume that what is common in their own lives is common in everyone else's?

Everyone, no matter how similar their backgrounds, has unique experiences and preferences. While there will undoubtedly be some overlap between people, you can't go through life banking on that assumption. Just like people eat different things people think different things, and deal with things differently. Assuming that people respond in the same way you do to things can lead to conflict as well as disappointment but it could also lead to some surprises. It's these differences between people that make life more interesting. However, it is important to remember these differences when dealing with people...even people you know well.