Burrito As an Experience

I've eaten a lot of burritos this year, but there is a difference between a burrito as a meal and a burrito as an experience.

It all started with a message to some friends which read "Ayyyy any of you guys free tomorrow to do things". You may notice that the message starts out with a variation on the word "ayyy", as do many of my messages. In my entire exchange of making plans for today, I only used the word "ayyy" (with varying numbers of the letter y) two times. Since it was snowing, my friend and I decided to go sledding at a nearby hill. It was pretty cold outside, so we only went down the hill a few times and then drove to get dinner.

We sat down at the restaurant and our waitress gave us some water. Since I had been outside for such a long time, the water felt really cold. Seriously, there must have been like eight cubes of ice in that cup. Anyways, I sat with my friend and we talked about all sorts of things. In fact, he gave me some quality advice, for which I am grateful.

After we received our burritos, my friend boldly asked the waitress if they had any hot sauce besides the two sauces that were already on the table. To my surprise, they actually had a third sauce! I was hesitant to try this new sauce because the burrito was already really tasty on its own. However, I soon discovered that this sauce would be a game changer.

Those that know me well know that I live for the spice, but what happens if you have the spice when the rest of your body is so cold? Of course, I felt the heat of the peppers on my tongue, but I also felt the cool of the snow on my ankles, ears, and fingers. This was a combination of sensations that I've never really felt before, but nevertheless there was a sense of calmness between these two extremes.

Perhaps this experience is representative of everyday life. There are good days and bad days, but most days consist of some combination of both good and bad. It's up to us to find the calmness that exists in between the two. I would venture to say that this calmness can be found in a number of places, such as in music, exercise, art, or in other people. The important thing is that you find something that awakens the calmness for yourself. In my case, the extremes of spice and ice were made calm by the company of a dear friend.

As I said at the beginning, there is a difference between a burrito as a meal and a burrito as an experience. Some burritos are pretty tasty: I enjoy those burritos in the moment but I tend to forget about them after a few days. Other burritos are not that memorable simply because they just don't taste that good to begin with. But once in a blue moon, a burrito comes along with the ability to capture a slice (however small) of the overlap between taste and circumstance, between spice and ice. To say all of this in a way that is more concise:

I said "ayyy" twice for eight ice with advice from a nice accomplice in this slice of spice and ice.