Taco Thursday: A Lesson In Gratitude

I feel like this really should be one of my husband's "Tales of the mildly interesting" because it's really mostly about him, but I guess I'll tell my side of it.

     I'm wrapping up my time with the Columbus Board of Realtor's Equal Opportunity and Cultural Diversity Committee and my final project was one I mirrored from my daughter's Girl Scout Troop; ever Thursday at Open Door Community House there is a dinner and training session for Circles in Columbus. My daughter's troop provided one meal a month for 6 months and a kid's activity, and it made an impact on me as much as it did the kids in the troop, so I decided to bring a few Realtors back with me to cook dinner and do a kid's craft.

    In early discussions over what to make, my husband and I were considering cost: "How 'bout spaghetti and meatballs? It's cheap. A little salad and bread and you have a meal!"

    But after a little consideration, my husband said: "What about Taco night?"

    Not a lot of people know, but my husband grew up in a ghetto in Maryland... like a real one, where you couldn't keep your toys outside (if you were lucky enough to have any), where there were police raids, where the school bus drove right by some days. He experienced poverty even though his mother worked a full time job (or two) to support them. We've had very intimate talks about this in our 12 years of marriage and he's confessed to me on more than one occasion that he's pretty sure he hates spaghetti/pasta/red sauce because it's one of the cheapest bulk food items you can buy to feed a family (and he's also told me government cheese is the best stuff on earth).

   It was exactly his aversion to any kind of pasta that made him suggest taco night... because to a kid who can't get the foods he craves, any deviation from the norm is practically a banquet.

    So we shopped, we didn't skimp! We brought hamburger, tortillas, chips, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese AND sour cream AND hot nacho cheese... because if you're going to have taco night, you should indulge a little.

    I was there as they came through the line, everyone getting a little bit different, some people bulking up on carbs, meat, and cheese as the winter winds must have been making them crave heat, fat, and hibernation. Some families were happy to load the vegetables onto their plates, but they were all smiling.

    It must have been something special to my husband when a little girl walked up to him at the end and asked if he could bring back the same meal the next week.

    A meal is more than a meal. We don't think about that when we're giving sometimes. We think, hunger is satiated by whatever we give... and that's true for physical hunger; however, what the soul needs is hope, change, a little bit extra to keep going. Sometimes the soul needs a taco night and we should be as willing to give that as we are the extra cans of beets from the cabinet (that we always meant to eat, but never did).

    I was happy to share this experience with my husband and with the wonderful Realtors that showed up to help us serve, and it may make me think about Taco Night a little differently from now on.