The man woke up. He was on year 35 of his potato diet. His mother had started the potato diet in his family, shortly after he was born. She wanted to lose weight. The diet worked. She and her entire family lost weight and stayed slim. The diet worked so well; his mother didn’t vary from it. The man wasn’t particularly fond of potatoes but it was all he knew, so he continued to eat them. They kept him alive.

When he was in his 20’s he met a young lady. She introduced him to a variety of food. The man was very excited. He tasted all the flavors that he never knew existed. He was super excited to be with the woman.

The woman thought it was a strange thing was that she had to spoon feed him. She found that he wasn’t going to put the food in his own mouth. She did enjoy the company and she really liked how excited he was about the food she was giving him. She often pondered about how strange it was that he would only feed himself potatoes, but since he would allow her to spoon feed him other foods, she decided that she was okay with that. She was a compassionate person and she empathetically reasoned that it wasn’t his fault that he grew up only eating potatoes.

Shortly after they were married the man stopped allowing the woman to put food in his mouth. He didn’t feel that it felt natural for his wife to spoon feed him. It felt kind of controlling. He missed the food, but not method of delivery. He decided that he will just stick to feeding himself potatoes. That felt more normal to him anyway.

His wife found that she could cook a variety of foods, but he would never eat anything but potatoes. For years she tried cooking every different type of cuisine. He wouldn’t try any of it. If she cooked something other than potatoes, he would seclude himself to his den and eat potatoes by himself. After a while, she gave up. She resigned herself to only cooking potatoes. When she cooked potatoes, he would join her at the dinner table. She felt that eating with him was better than eating by herself, so she ate potatoes.

The woman would join with her friends from time to time and eat different foods. She was a busy lady and didn’t have time for a lot of friends. These occasions were enjoyable, but they didn’t happen a lot. She felt very empty inside. She wanted to eat a variety of food at home. She craved it, but she had given up trying to serve variety a long time ago. She resigned herself to potatoes.

The man new there was something missing in his life. He didn’t know what it was. He remembered how good it felt when his wife used to spoon feed him. He knew those days were gone, still he missed the sensation of eating different foods.

One day the man was on break at work. The coworker sitting next to him, let him taste a bit of her lunch. He loved it! It was delicious. The man started sitting by her at lunch every day. He didn’t seem to mind that she was spoon feeding him. It didn’t seem controlling like when his wife did it.

Soon the man found that he would meet up with the woman outside of work. He loved the different varieties of food the woman gave him. The varieties of food tasted much better than the potatoes he was eating at home.

His wife found out that he was eating different food with his coworker. She was furious. She didn’t understand why she was only eating potatoes at home, while he was eating variety with his coworker. She didn’t understand why his coworker could spoon feed him, but he wouldn’t allow her to do that.

She asked her husband why he would eat food variety with the woman, but not with her. The man thought and thought. He thought and thought some more. He did not understand himself very well. All he could tell her was that he didn’t know why. All he could tell her was that he felt controlled when she spoon fed him.

The woman made up her mind that the only independent variable was her. She must be the reason why her husband doesn’t eat anything but potatoes at home. The woman renewed her efforts in spoon feeding her husband. He agreed to stop eating out with the coworker. He even switched jobs. He started letting his wife spoon feed him again.

For a little while the marriage was amazing. The wife was excited that she could cook variety again. The man was excited that he could try different foods at the hand of his wife. The ecstasy was short lived. After a while he felt controlled again and slowly started to back off. His wife felt hurt that he wouldn’t eat variety with her and bitter that he would let another woman spoon feed him. The couple gradually went back to eating potatoes, but not together. The hurt the woman felt was palatable. The man avoided eating dinner with the woman and quietly ate his potatoes in the den.