Wait, Wait, Wait, Now!

I never have had a great deal of success with patience, although as I have chronicled here, there have been occasional improvements in that. It is often just too much for me to manage, I'm afraid. One of the areas in which I have suffered the most for my inability to wait is in cooking. In front of me as I write this is something rather hot that I am eager to eat. I keep trying to start on it, only to find out afresh that it is too hot to eat safely.

I hate to wait and wait only to find that it has been sitting there too long. It is a delicate balance. If I get it right, then I of course benefit from a tasty meal consumed in its prime. You cannot make too much of the massive improvement in the eating experience that comes from getting some food when it's neither too hot nor too cold or spoiled. It is, quite simply, the dream to which we all aspire in our daily eating lives. I know that it is for me, anyway.

The consequences of failing are severe, however. I cannot even count the number of times that I have badly burned my mouth or my hands on something that needed a few moments more to be safely consumed. Just the other day, I burned myself on that hobo pizza I described recently. Perhaps that's karma. I burned it, then it burned me. I can't fault it for that. I would do the same, if I'm to be entirely honest.

Maybe someday, when I'm older and wiser, I'll be able to wait and hit it right on the money. Maybe then, I'll have finally gotten something out of my many missteps, stumbles and outright spectacular failures. Then again, I have to assume that when I've finally gotten that wise, then I will have to be very old. Probably I will at that point be near death, at which time I will be impatience despite knowing better. After all, food at the right temperature will be worthless to me in death.