I love hush puppies! I don’t get the opportunity to eat them very often so when I do I have a tendency to go overboard.
My husband and I were traveling to Missouri for a wedding and stopped in Iowa for the night. We decided to have dinner at a seafood restaurant. (I know, who goes to Iowa for seafood? But it sounded good.) I was thrilled to learn the restaurant had hush puppies. My shrimp came with hush puppies and fries. I requested hush puppies and hush puppies. My husband ordered a side of hush puppies as an appetizer because he did not think he would get any of mine. (He was right. But I got some of his.)
When the side of hush puppies arrived, I was ecstatic. (Did I mention that I love hush puppies?) After just a few bites, though, I was disappointed. There were jalapenos in my hush puppies. I do not like jalapenos. I considered not eating anymore hush puppies because I do not like jalapenos. Then I decided I was not going to let something I didn’t like, jalapenos, get in the way of something I loved, hush puppies. So I ate around the jalapenos as much as possible and enjoyed the hush puppies.
The next morning, I realized that the jalapenos in my hush puppies was a good metaphor for life. (Alcohol may have had something to do with me not making the connection the evening before.)
There will always be things we don’t like wrapped up in the things we love. We can choose to give up the things we love to avoid the things we don’t like. Or we can choose to accept the things we don’t like, deal with them the best we can, and continue to enjoy the things we love.
Don’t let the jalapenos in life keep you from enjoying your hush puppies.
