16. One man's meat is another man's poison.

When I was completing my university chemistry degree, I applied for a summer job with the Canadian government and was hired and assigned to Ottawa. I worked for the Department of Health in the newly founded Environmental Affairs section. 

I ultimately ended up in the tobacco country of southern Ontario in the little summer beach community of Port Burwell on the north shore of Lake Erie. Our summer task was to try to replicate the findings of the team from the previous year that was testing the air quality that flowed from Ohio and Pennsylvania over the Great Lakes. Contaminants in the polluted air seemed to be damaging the quality of the Ontario tobacco leaves and we were there to continue the research. 

I was part of a four-person team - myself, two University of Guelph chemistry students and our supervisor, an older civil servant who was retired on the job. My two companions, Al and Art, and I ran the lab set up in a garage package in a tobacco field, while our boss spent his time driving around the countryside. 

At the time, I didn't realize how often I might make a critical or judgemental comment on some issues. Change the radio station, I don't like the music or let's go to the west beach instead of the town beach, it's nicer. One of my buddies would often look at me and just very calmly state, "One man's meat is another man's poison." During the course of the summer, Art gently issued that little lesson on a rather regular basis until I finally "heard" him. He was right. We do not all like the same things nor should we. Everyone is free to choose their own preferences in most circumstances. 

Art's simple wisdom stuck with me for the rest of my life. He didn't preach nor chastise me for my point of view, he just subtly reminded me of this little truth until I learned it. It is just a small part of accepting that we are all different and can like or dislike many things and that is OK. Thanks, Art for this sixty-year-old life lesson!