Meditations on Eating a Banana

Eating a banana is not as straightforward as one might think. Sam certainly has no pre-conceived notions about how to perform this act of fruit consumption—an act which takes place in billions of homes around the globe daily.

Back in the day when Sam was a baby, he got mashed up bananas to eat. This was because he only had gums and a tongue. Later he grew teeth and figured out some cool chewing moves, so he got bananas cut into little chunks. He grabbed these with fat baby fists and stuffed them into his mouth. As time progressed, he even got a plastic fork to stab the banana chunks.

Last week for the first time, it occurred to me to give him a whole banana. I turned down the peel in three strips, the way monkeys eat bananas in cartoons. Sam took to this new banana presentation with enthusiasm. He ate down to where the peel was still attached to the banana, then started digging with his tongue and fingers to pry out the rest. I showed him how to pull the peel back even further. He studied what I had done, but it took him a while to work it out for himself.

Today, I gave him a large banana and told Danny to watch. In a few seconds, Sam had peeled the whole thing and was holding it sideways, eating it up and down like corn on the cob.

I began to think about how some day, Sam will learn from repeated observation the “normal” way to eat bananas. He will also become more picky about getting banana all over his hands and choose to hold the clean peel. But for now, he can eat a banana any way he likes. He can also wear different shoes on each foot, or run around Lowes millwork department with no pants on. He can “read” his books upside down, make his dinosaur fly or his dolphin hop along the floor. He can put my lipstick on his cheek and Danny’s deodorant on his belly. He can eat dog food and feed his carrots to the dog.

Eventually though, it will be good to learn certain things, like that water belongs in sinks, tubs and cups, not on floors or in laundry baskets. Slowly the vast life curriculum of safety, health, manners, and thoughtfulness towards others will kick in. His unself-conscious actions will be replaced by a self awareness that may be both good and bad---a widening of his capacity to function appropriately in society, and a narrowing of his unedited curiosity. For now, he lives in a space of exploration and experimentation.

To get to observe it from such intimate proximity is breathtaking.