You eat too fast!

My Mother says I eat too fast.  My manner of eating, she says, makes her ashamed to be seen in public with me.  

She's right, of course!  She's my Mom after all.  And she's 87 and still ticking.  I'd be a fool to not heed what she says.

So. Why is it that I eat so fast, other than, I am a barbarian who is so, only because he never heeded what his Mother told him?  I can blame my bad habit on a few things:  1) My brief career as a courier driver in the valley of the lower mainland of British Columbia.  Many days, I was behind on deliveries and only had a few minutes to eat.  2) I was a bachelor who cleaned up after himself.  A full meal took a while and I rushed to get through the eating.  3) Using a chopstick in China often involved shovelling food into one's mouth, especially eating a bowl of rice with the utensils. 4)  Clean up eating.  What I mean is often, I have to eat past my fill because there is too much food cooked at home or ordered at a restaurant.  When something becomes a task or duty, I like to rush through it. 5) Delicious food.  My Wife and my Mother are good cooks who make food that is so easy to gobble up quickly.

Yesterday, my Mother asked me to finish a bowl of cantaloup chopped up into chunks because she wanted to clean the bowl and put it away.  Dutiful son I was trying to be, I asked her if I could eat it fast.  My Mother smiled and said that I could.