Pineapple on Pizza

Hey Stranger! So hows you? 

Are you thinking what the is Roux doing writing about pizza? That would be fair! 

But actually this article isn’t about pizza at all. It’s about the concept of the great debate! 

Do you like pineapple on your pizza? I’m hoping if you’re here, you’re ready to jump into this with me! Shall we dive? 

It’s not the question I find interesting, it’s the reaction! If you just happen to tell a person you like pineapple on your pizza and they don’t… 

Why are my pineapple lovers immediately wrong? 

Why are my non pineapple lovers—Also immediately wrong? 

How does it affect my anchovi fiends if you’re not eating it? Cringing at anchovies? You’re missing the point! Why isn’t it just ok, that some people like pineapple and some people don’t! 

I accidentally did a deep dive here and I’m about to share it with you! Because this got me thinking about how modern society can be kind of like a pizza! 

Let me explain! 

It’s like the world is the pizza, and you get one slice. You’re not allowed to step out of your little wedge, because that makes you different, or upsets the status quo. Maybe it’s your culture, your spiritual choices, your mental health, your career, your sexuality or gender. Maybe it’s not on this (certainly not exhaustive) list. 

I don’t know about you, but I like being different. I sometimes think about how the world might be if we wondered around the entire pizza. Because in my mind, learning about every one of those slices, is understanding that we are all just people at the end of the day! 

One heart, one soul, one brain, one body. It’s the same parts in all of us that keep us breathing so why should we have to meet a standard designed to be unreachable? I talk about perfection a lot, and the reality is, I struggle with it just as much as the next perfectionist that reads this article. But I stand by it. 

Beauty standards, body standards, mind standards, spirituality standards. These are things that are ours. Our choices, our livelihood, our bodies. So why do we feel like we are running in circles sometimes? Who creates the standard? Is it advertising? Is it media?

Or is it us? 

Because I learned something recently. Sometimes, I’m setting myself a standard based on a perceived expectation of someone I’ve never met. The hair dresser, the baker, the pharmacist, the doctor. The friend I haven’t met yet, my pilates instructor. I don’t even know what their expectations are and yet… 

I’m constantly thinking about how to make them happy. Isn’t that interesting? Because inadvertently, I’m setting a standard I have to meet next time I see them. Why should their opinion of me affect me so much? When we might not even know their true opinion at all. Because we are behaving based on what we think they think of us. 

Who doesn’t like a little bit of philosophy? 

We call the grass green because we learn that it is. We call the sky blue because that’s what they teach us. If I was to say oh the grass is actually red you’d think I was well, maybe over tired, to put it nicely, but it can be red if I want it to be. Because I’m a writer. I can make it any colour I like. 

If we open the gate to our slice of pizza, maybe eventually people can be respected for who they are, instead of judged for it. 

Maybe a day where nobody has to justify feeling emotion. Our attachments, love or values are “normal”. Like I said, we all have a heart, and I’m not being lyrical for once. 

I’m talking about the literal organ that beats to keep us living. So what right do we have to take peoples joy, their sense of self. Their lyrical heart? Our worth shouldn’t come with a price tag, or an interview to make sure that we make the cut.

Right now, the world is a Margarita. Imagine, if everybody created their own favourite home made slice of pizza, and had people over to share it? Just imagine the potential of what we could learn from each other, about the world, about ourselves. 

Heads up, If you wonder over here, I’m a vegetarian and I am a pineapple pizza person. In fact, I’m a fruit on pizza in general peson. Strange to you maybe! But it tastes like authenticity and that’s important to me. 

That fruit could represent so many things about me. My taste in music, my taste in writing, my genre preferences, the way I dress, if I choose to wear makeup or not. How I present myself to others, how I am with my family and friends. 

Maybe my favourite animal, or my favourite colour. And it won’t make a difference to me if you agree, because, these are things that make me, me! 

It might have taken me a little while to get here, but I finally realise what’s important to me is understanding my own values, and living by those, instead of comparing myself to a world full of unique experiences. 

Our experience is never going to be exactly the same as the next person that reads this, but isn’t it worth getting to know ourselves on a level that feels true? Honest? 

But, I’ll leave that up to you! 

See you. 

Roux 

Author’s Notes

Hey Stranger! So how’s you?

Thanks for reading Pineapple on Pizza! I thought of this article during a training session I was running. Some of the responses to this question got me thinking! 

You may or may not agree, but the world is so… well. It can be uncomfortable for people who feel like they don’t fit in. I wrote this for those people. People like me who may still be or have previously struggled with trying to force ourselves into a circle when we are a square. Let me take this opportunity to call you a diamond. 

It’s ok to be yourself and I hope this article encourages a new perspective either for you personally, your journey, or your thoughts. 

After learning this the hard way, through years of feeling like an outsider, the moment that it clicked for myself, I will forever consider a milestone in my life. This article, my other writing on here, the future writing I have planned would never have been possible before this milestone, because I was certain I just wasn’t gifted the confidence or strength to step outside of what people wanted, and into a version of myself I will never look back on. 

Along the edge of a dream I’ll see you! 

Roux