Sometimes the courage to throw a whole hot pepper in your mouth and chew is really just foolishness. Honestly, I didn’t think it would be that hot. I was wrong…. I am usually so good about remembering not to let the hot pepper actually touch my lips. My lips haven’t felt that hot since I was 5 or 6….
I was young boy happy to be at yet another party at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. I don’t remember what the party was for or much of the party at all; but I remember the pickle. Now keep in mind that Mom had trained me very well that I eat everything on my plate. Well I went around the food table filling happily filling my plate. I was surprised at how many of the veggie trays had pickles on them. Of course that was fine by me, since I love pickles and having them on multiple trays justified for me that I could take more than one, which I happily did. One pickle in particular was very unique in that it was smoother than all the rest and had stem.
I sat down to eat my food and enjoy my pickle sampling. That was until I got to the odd pickle… that first bite was spicy. I was intrigued though… I had never had a spicy pickle before, so I took the second bite out of curiosity. With my mouth now on fire, the third bite was out of the duty to finish everything on my plate… the fourth bite was to prove that I was strong. Having made it half way through the pickle I decided it was now time to go find Mom and see if just this once I could get a waiver on the “finish everything on your plate” policy. It was then that I was informed that the pickle was a jalapeño pepper. I got the desired waiver, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying everything imaginable to try and cool off my lips.
It is amazing how everything else around you fades into insignificance when your lips are on fire. Pain has an amazing capacity to supersede the relevance of everything else going on.
I once again had to beg off of the “finish everything” policy tonight as I spit the fiery pepper out of my mouth that I was trying to be brave on chew up.
My kids did enjoy watching their father panic though, and they all got a good laugh.
So if life hands you a sour pickle, try to see the bright side and laugh a little: at least it is not a jalapeño pepper.
