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2 Short Stories: Signs to D.C. & Hot Chapatis

For this month’s Personal Story Challenge, I share two short tales on the lighter side of life.

Back in 1997, when I moved back east, I drove my ’78 Toyota pick-up across the country with a friend. I had been living up and down the west coast for several years (Northern California, Oregon, Washington, & Alaska). Most recently I had been in Eugene, OR and before that in the hills and mountains of Washington state.

Now the plan was to move to Washington DC.

Late in the afternoon after several days of driving that ‘ol truck that could hardly reach 59mph, we saw a great, big, green highway sign for “Washington.”

My friend said, “Hey, go that way, it says Washington.”

I gave a quick glance, mentally brushed the comment aside, and replied, “That is a different Washington, we are looking for Washington D.C.” I was keen to emphasize the initials “D.C.”

My confident answer seemed to satisfy both of us and we continued “in route.”

Needless to say, we arrived at our destination MUCH later than anticipated. I must have taken the most circuitous route ever into the District.

Moral: Never act knowledgeable in an arena you know nothing about.  Do not place so much importance on a couple of initials.

SONY DSC

Here is the next story…

I was sitting with my Acaryaji in our mud hut, makeshift kitchen. We were eating and talking. The conversation was going back and forth while we cooked and ate our fresh, hot chapatis (flat breads). Then at some point I noticed that he had stopped contributing to the conversation, and he was just looking at me as I ate and talked. Then the conversation died down entirely. There was silence.

Then he looked at me and said, “I was amazed by how you were eating your food – taking huge bites and not chewing before swallowing.”

He added, “At some point I was sure I would see the whole chapatis create a huge discus-sized bulge in your neck as you swallowed.” And he made a motion with his hands to display what he was talking about.

Immediately visions of childhood cartoons flashed in my mind as that is exactly how they would portray certain characters as they ate.

Those times of simple living were long, challenging days and I was definitely overzealous in my chapati eating.

Moral: Take smaller bites, put down the fork or spoon, chew food until it is liquidy in the mouth, then swallow. Breathe for a bit, look around, then pick up the utensil and start over. I always have to remind myself that proper digestion starts in the mouth as the digestive enzymes in the saliva must mix with the food. That is why in ayurveda they say, “Drink your food and chew your drink.” The sense is to chew food so thoroughly that it becomes liquidy and can be swallowed like a drink; and with your drink be sure to chew it as if it were food so it stays in the mouth a little while before being swallowed. In both instances it gives opportunity for the saliva to mix with that food or drink. 

Chapatis

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7 Comments

  1. I especially love the first one! The older I get the more I realize how wrong I am, especially when I KNOW I am right!

  2. I can appreciate your DC driving story…

    Years ago – in my ‘ lets go shopping as a reason to have dinner and a few glasses of wine’ days, a friend and I whom I see all too rarely, had an annual tradition of traveling to Virginia to visit Tyson’s Corner to kick off our Holiday gift hunt.

    Inevitably however, we’d linger too long at the restaurant for supper, and end up foregoing the shopping.

    This particular year, we left about midnight to ‘avoid traffic’ and headed home…

    Chatting, laughing, sharing trials and tribulations of family and friends, we drove past the tall imposing golden Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, marveling at it’s splendor.

    We continued to travel, looking for our exit, all the while giggling and carrying on like a couple of school girls delighting in our merriment! Until, we both yawned with fatigue – now approaching 1:30am, when we saw it:

    The tall imposing golden Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints – AGAIN!

    It dawned on us both at the same time, that they had not built a 2nd one, and we were reduced to peals of laughter yet again, realizing that we’d been so completed involved with our fun & friendship that for a brief moment in our busy lives, time had stood still…while we had traveled around the beltway a second time!

  3. Diana – don’t know how I missed this! I think this just proves your power of concentration on the things that really matter – friendships!

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