You Can't Go Home Again

My friend Dave Rudolph often takes the same ferry I do. When we get to the city, he takes his bike to work, and I take the Muni.

This morning we were chatting and he told me a story about backpacking.

Dave had been on a grueling backpack in the Desolation Wilderness (west of Lake Tahoe), hiking twenty miles a day at altitude. The last day of the hike, Dave found that he had eaten all of his food except for a pack of chicken noodle soup mix and a slice of American cheese (American processed cheese food).

Dave cooked up the soup, looked at the slice of cheese, and thought to himself, "I should put the cheese in the soup!" He says it was the best soup he had ever tasted. It was the perfect soup, in the perfect place, with the perfect view. It's a memory he cherishes.

A couple weeks later, safely at home, he was wondering what to have for lunch, and decided to make the same soup, and even add the slice of American cheese food. His mouth watering in anticipation, Dave prepared a bowl of his perfect soup. He took the bowl to his table, sat down, and had a big spoonful. "It was disgusting!" he tells me.

The first time, he was hungry, he was tired, and his body was craving what the soup provided. From this experience, Dave says he learned not to mess with a perfect memory. He'd rather cherish it than try to recreate it and mess it up.

"Like seeing a bad sequel after a good movie?" I asked.

"Like reading a book, and having in mind what the characters looked like, and then seeing the movie," he replied.

I think the other lesson to be learned from this is, "Hunger makes the best spice."

Note: If you're not reading the comments to this post, you're missing out. ;)

Blog Tag: Chatter