We grew up in the days that milk was delivered in glass jars. Dad was a farmer so we got our milk direct off the farm, but everyone knew that if milk stood for a period of time the cream would rise to the top. You could skim it off or blend it back in with the milk before you used it.
Nowadays, some packaging blocks out the light so you can’t see the milk at all. When I go to pick up milk packaged in that plastic, I don’t know how much milk is left in the bottle. I’ve unexpectedly thrown a milk bottle into the air more than once because I lifted it with more force than required.
Today, milk is often homogenised – a process of changing milk from its natural state to remain mixed even when it’s been standing. The cream now stays suspended in the milk.
A process like this doesn’t set off alarm bells for everyone, milk still looks and tastes like milk. But the subtle change affects the way that your body absorbs the milk and the cream. What used to be two different sized molecules are no longer distinguishable.
Mixture becomes engrained and expected in milk. We get used to our exact preference anywhere from 2% fat to 50% fat. We can buy the same flavour every time.
We live in a culture that is increasingly influenced by screens and information. We search for some of that information; other things pop up unsolicited.
We peruse social media rather than spend our precious time connecting with people. Rather than bumping into friends and neighbours and hearing their stories, we content ourselves with the stories on our devices. It startles me how many people are on their phones in places where traditionally they would interact with others. (Full disclosure, I too, sit with my phone from time to time in public places).
Because we’re in front of screens more, we don’t see each other as much. Things we might have noticed before now pass by unseen; changes in our friend, or a neighbour who could use some help. Downtime activities are gradually adapting to our new lifestyle. Sharing home grown veges or a chutney become rare as we change our normal.
The information we consume is carefully curated. We’ve heard about the elusive algorithms and the way that our devices feed us more of what we want to know in our digital diet.
It used to be that important information would filter to the top and we could choose to focus on it or to treat it like we treated everything else. Now our information is homogenised. We get information broken down into similar sized pieces so that it stays mixed in the particular flavour that we prefer. We don’t have to discern, we don’t have to weigh things against each other because we only receive our own special mix.
Sometimes there is a major focus on something online – is it really cream or have the milk molecules been inflated?
We are fed a ready, mixed diet, specific to our interests.
What do we do when someone else has a different point of view?
It’s easy to shut them down, to have a taste of the conversation and screw up our noses because it is a different flavour than we’re used to.
The more natural response is to have a conversation: mix our ideas together and let them stand to see which rise to the top. Which parts are cream? Which parts are milk? Do we keep them separate and use them in their different contexts, or do we mix them together? Different conversations will have different outcomes. We can choose to separate ideas and yet mix the exact same ideas on other occasions.
Sometimes we will agree, sometimes we will compromise, grow and learn from each other. Other times we may agree to disagree.
Our challenge is to listen to other viewpoints and weigh them. If we find that everything weighs the same, it has probably been processed and presented to us in an unnatural form. We can go closer to source and discover a less processed version of the story that is easier to weigh.
If you have an area that you just can’t discern the truth, perhaps a less processed, more raw perspective will help. If you can’t see clearly, perhaps the packaging is the issue. Is there something concealed here that would be helpful to see. What change might give you a clearer view?
In our society we tend to buy cream when we need cream. We buy milk – with our own particular preference of skimmedness, of course – when we need milk.
It is less common to buy unhomogenised milk and make the call on whether to skim off the cream or to mix it in.
We’re pretty blessed in our small town to have a local farm who do sell unhomogenised milk in glass bottles.
I have a system. If I’m the first to open the bottle and there is cream on the top, I will have a coffee because coffee is better with cream. But if the bottle has been lying on its side and I mix it by standing the bottle up, or someone else has poured the cream already, I will have a tea. Therefore, I drink more tea than coffee. How crazy is that… I get to choose. Sometimes my coffee isn’t creamy enough. Other days my tea is creamier than I would like. Things can get uncomfortable when milk is in its natural form.
Like it or not, the environment that we live in today reflects our own views and preferences. Technology is designed to meet our desires – whether it’s for entertainment or for work, for study or for interest.
Others have insights that might benefit us. It might not be what we desire but remember that their diet is curated completely differently to ours. Weigh what you see and hear and check that you can see through the packaging.
We’re more likely to find the truth when our diet is less processed.
Hold your views lightly when you come across a different viewpoint. Exercise your discernment muscle and practise weighing up different perspectives. Come to a conclusion or get curious and search for more information.
A different opinion is just that – a different opinion. Use other opinions to grow. You might learn graciousness, you might learn a new fact. Filtering perspectives comes naturally to us, but it’s a skill to practise and develop.
