The world sucks right now. It really does. If we get to the end of 2017 without WWIII breaking out, the US breaking up, and Australia burning down coast to coast I’ll be very surprised. Lots of people suck right now to. Even people I usually respect and look up to are doing and saying dumb and sucky thing*.
In order to combat the unending suck I try to find moments of universality in the every day. Most of these involve small children having meltdowns in tourist spots. It doesn’t matter what your nationality, race, or religion is an overtired two-year-old is an overtired two-year-old and that is a storm no one wants to get in front of.
Yesterday my moment came while trying to choose avocados for guacamole. I got to the store late so while there was still a large pile of avocados that had just come into season they were all nearly rotten or rock hard. Next to me was a Chinese couple having a very intense discussion that I couldn’t understand but they were also shifting through a mountain of unacceptable avocados. The in the middle of a lot of Chinese** there was a word I knew very well. Guacamole. They were digging through the avocados for the exact same reason I was. There was even some gesturing towards the lemons and chillies. That made me smile. And as a half Mexican there was also some pride in the fact that our technique for mashing up avocados and making them extra tasty had obviously traversed the globe.
I tried to strike up a conversation because I make good guacamole and am always eager to talk to people about their recipes and techniques, but either they didn’t speak English or they didn’t want to talk to the random American lady in a New Zealand Pak n’ Save at five in the afternoon on a Sunday. Fair enough.
So that was my universal moment. When you want to make guacamole but you just can’t find the right avocados but are willing to dig through a mountain of them because guacamole is good.
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*No, I’m not talking about Tom Hiddleston dating Taylor Swift. Oddly enough I think they might be good for each other.
** Mandarin, I think. It’s been a while.