So I try not to talk too much about this subject as I find it trite and subjective no matter how you approach it.
Like the way I was seasoning this week’s hummus this morning and thinking: sometimes it’s less peppery and then sometimes it’s got a little more kick from the lemon juice.
It’s always good but there’s no exact science to getting the same flavor from it each and every time. And yet every week or two I mash the beans and garlic into protein-y goodness.
So love for a lot of folks, I think, is like my hummus. Good in all of its unique manifestations. And that’s probably why some people do it over and over again. Sure there’s no exact science to produce exact results every time; in that case there’d be no such thing as heartbreak (or bad hummus). But they figure they’ll get some goodness out of each manifestation until they find that perfect blend.
Here’s why I started thinking about all this.
Someone I Know has recently begun dating Boy 6 (or more like Boy 100 since she’s a bit of a serial dater). All one hundred times love, at least that long-lasting-forever kind she wants, has eluded her.
She uses the same basic recipe everytime but seems willing to explore a little. By that, I mean, she stays in the general species: males with brown skin. You know, like sometimes I use minced garlic and sometimes I use garlic paste in my hummus. I stay in the garlic family, understand, but am not convinced that one or the other is the only way to make my protein-y goodness.
Boy 6 is brown and male but this time a bit younger: an independent adult as is she, but nonetheless quite a bit younger than she.
I will grant her well wishers who balk at the age difference this much: she has not always been good at selecting quality ingredients. But more than anything, these well wishers seem to want her to stop trying recipes altogether and this new ingredient, that is, his age is their newest reason why.
I think that eventually she’ll tweak the recipe; maybe or maybe not this time, until she gets it right. I don’t think she should stop tweaking it or stop trying different ingredients.
If you believe in something: love, hummus, or that you will be able to hold bridge pose for 30 seconds (umm, sorry, I digress) then you owe it to yourself to tweak it until you get it right. For all the disappointments along the way, think of all the good sek–I mean, of err umm, stuff you might experience along the way.
Good luck to Someone I Know and Boy 6. And as Soulja Boy would say (I really find this little boy rather repulsive but must borrow anyway) yaahhhh to all the haters.
darlene anita scott 