Can you find the spirit of adventure in a jam and sesame bagel?
The spirit of adventure in a jam bagel
Kirstie is out early and Cameron rushes off to school leaving Hannah and I alone in the kitchen. We are about to have breakfast together until I discover there’s no marmalade left. Normally I wouldn’t throw a tantrum, I’d just have butter. But not on a toasted sesame bagel. That calls for thick shredded marmalade. It’s how I always have them for breakfast. It’s how I like it. It’s what I’m used to. Let’s call it habit.
Now, dear reader, stay with me on this sticky tale as there’s more than a sesame seed of an idea here.
Daisies, marmalade, jam and Popes – what is this post all about?
Where’s the marmalade?
“Who had the last bit of marmalade?” I grumble.
“Probably you,” says Hannah, fixing herself some Coco Pop Crocs.
It wasn’t me. It must have been one of the boys. I’d nip to the shop but there’s not time now.
“It’s so annoying.”
Hannah shrugs. “Why don’t you just have jam?”
“It’s not the same.”
I search the shelf for the spare jar of marmalade but that’s gone too. The only thing I can find is blackcurrant jam.
“Blackcurrant jam is nice,” says Hannah.
But I want marmalade.
What’s jam got to do with adventure? Stick with me…
“You should try it,” she says, wiping chocolate milk off her chin.
I should but I’m resistant. I like my marmalade. It’s what I know. The comfortable tang of orange. The familiar chew of thick cut shreds.
But the butter on my bagel is congealing and I need to eat before the school run so I reluctantly spread on some jam.
Is habit the antithesis of adventure?
So hurrah for this little new experience. But my point is not about jam or marmalade. It’s about habits, even silly little ones, and how they can hold us back, for habit can be the antithesis of adventure.
It offers the easy path, invites us to mindlessly follow the comfortable rut of the familiar and in doing so lures us away from new experiences and opportunities to discover something else about ourselves, the people or world around us.
“Do you like it Dad?” asks Hannah giggling as I wipe blackcurrant jelly from my chin.
“Yes, I do, black syrup, tiny berries and all.”
The bagel that changed the world?
Now a blackcurrant bagel isn’t going to change the world, but in a small way it changed my world or at least my morning. OK it was kind of forced upon me. And I grumbled and resisted. And I probably would have had the marmalade if it had been there, BUT in the end I did have a bagel adventure. Habit and tradition be damned, for this morning anyway.
“Did you know there’s a new Pope,” I say to Hannah on the way to school.
“Yes. He chose his own name. Why couldn’t I do that?”
I explain the little I know of this papal tradition.
“But why did he choose something so boring. If I was Pope I’d call myself Pope Daisy.”
I am about to tell her she will never be Pope but I catch myself before my mouth opens. Why couldn’t she be? Just because there’s never been a woman Pope?? Just because of two thousand years of tradition? Who says habits can’t be changed. No pun intended.
“Pope Daisy. It has a nice ring to it.” I tell her.
Perhaps the seed of change was in my bagel this morning.
A Pope called Daisy. What do you think? A possibility?
Talking Points
What do you like on your bagels? Is your life based on habit or adventure? Do you think habit is the antithesis of adventure? What do you think about a Pope called Daisy?
Join the Conversation
Talking Point is our series of short Photo Friday posts. Each week we pick a photo and post a talking point and invite you to join the conversation. Do leave a comment with your thoughts.
For more photo inspired fun why not check out Travel Photo Thursday from Budget Travelers Sandbox, Photo Friday at Delicious Baby or Friday Dreaming at RWeThereYetMom.
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[...] saving. The truth is I’ve really just adapted to these new circumstances. It’s a bit like having jam on my bagel; I’ve formed a new habit and become accustomed to a darker version of [...]