Trying Spam on White Bread
And How It Relates To Kindness
Normally, I don’t post a lot of photos on here about our life.
But, yeah, this Saturday, I’m breaking that tradition.
For those of you haven’t gleaned this yet, Shaun (my husband) and I have a lot of differences in how we interact with the world and even our tastes. One of those big differences is what we eat.
In my perfect world, I’d be all vegetables and fruit and nuts all the time.
In Shaun’s perfect world, life is meat covered.
And last night? My world shattered a bit.
It began with Shaun going into the pandemic stores of emergency COVID-19 food and coming out with this. A secret purchase maybe? Something amazing and delicious? I had high hopes.
No.
It was Spam.
I pretty much don’t like processed food because I’m annoying like that. But processed meat? That’s pretty much my arch nemesis. Because it’s meat PLUS chemicals. And those are two things that put me in a downward spiral of me declaring in a super nasal Valley Girl from the 1980s voice, “GROSS ME OUT TO THE CORE!”
This version of me is not my best self, I’m just saying.
But Shaun said, “Try it, baby. You have to at least try it.”
And I said, “I do?”
And he said, “Aren’t you always talking about being brave?”
And I said, “Is this about being brave or about being foolhardy?”
And he said, “It’s really about me watching your face when you bite in.”
So, I did it. I tried it. It’s not that big bite in the front. That’s from Shaun. It’s that tiny bite on the side. And did I like it? Oh, hell to the no. But did I try it? Yes. Yes, I did.
Was it on white bread, processed white bread that I didn’t make myself? Yes, yes, it was.
And did I hate it? Yes, yes, I did.
But that doesn’t matter. Not really.
What mattered was that I took a chance on it. And what really mattered is that I made Shaun happy by trying it.
Simon Sineak said about leadership, “The rank of office is not what makes someone a leader. Leadership is the choice to serve others with or without any formal rank.”
That quote has two important words: choice and serve.
That made me think about government and local, state, and federal officials, but also made me think about the true leaders of community: the people who help out others every day by shoveling, bringing dishes, taking care of kids, hauling away someone’s trash, walking someone’s dogs, carpooling. All those little kindnesses matter. So many people make the choice to serve others every single day.
One of those little kindnesses can be for someone like me to get over themselves and try things outside their little bubble of preference when someone really wants to share an experience with you.
Yes, I hated Spam on Canadian white bread. But I’m so glad I tried it because that’s the least I could have done for someone I loved. And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll try something that Shaun loves and I’ll love it, too.
We have to try new things, new ways of looking, new ways of tasting and interacting with the world for progress to happen, but we also have to try those things for love to happen. Choice and service. Those are the components of leadership in a community, but they are also the components of kindness in a life.
Thank you to all of you who make those choices every day and night. And thanks for hanging out here with me. I am so grateful.
P.S. There’s a video on my Facebook showing how grossed out (and annoying) I was.