Cured of any expectations

Thank you, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Staying the course

Cured of any expectations

Delighted to share a story at BoomerCafé in this holiday week:

The Thanksgiving ham from hell

by Phyllis Edgerly Ring

Expectations embed deeply in us, through the decades of holiday meals.

After several rather horrific ones, my friend Nadine hatched a plan to host the perfect holiday feast, a chance to record new memories over tapes of earlier nightmares.

She planned a menu with enough side dishes, vegetables, baked goods, appetizers and desserts to make any table groan.To top it all off, she decided to surprise her New England guests with the very last thing they’d ever expect — a genuine Southern ham.

Her mouth watered as she recalled the delicious thin slices that had accompanied carbohydrate-dense breakfasts she’d been served down South. Wouldn’t her guests be surprised and delighted when she served this special treat?

She’d invited about a dozen of them and knew she’d have to invest a little to accommodate such a crowd. Turned out to be a considerable investment indeed — $65 alone for the 25-pound beauty that would be the table’s centerpiece.

Imagine her surprise when the ham arrived, packed in a burlap sack inside its shipping box, and was the most remarkable (and repugnant) shade of … green. Read the rest here: http://www.boomercafe.com/2013/11/28/18330/