27 January 2008

familiarity breeds contempt

Have you ever heard the quote from Mark Twain about how familiarity breeds contempt? He actually said that "familiarity breeds contempt - and children."

(I also like the saying that "necessity never made a good bargain." But that's neither here nor there, so let's move on.)

Of familiarity, we often hear people say such things. And we are often guilty of allowing familiarity convince us that something is not as special as we once thought it to be.

Today, thinking of how long we have lived with the unfamiliar (to the point that it has now become familiar itself), I decided to list some familiar things that I am excited to experience again.

- A home-cooked meal. Remember, cooking in our house is almost impossible. I cannot wait to steam some veggies or plop something in the oven. Then to eat it....

- An American grocery store. Long story. You'll have to trust us.

- A dirty-burger from Bigz. Order a cheeseburger and ask them to make it "dirty". Your burger comes out piping hot, wonderfully fresh - with a runny fried egg on top of the beef patty.

- A rainy day at a coffee shop - even a Starbucks. The freedom in being able to just sit freely in a public place, enjoying something as simple as coffe is something that has never been quite right here. Always looking over your shoulder, always afraid to pull out the laptop.

- Proper electricity. Power outages are not frequent. They are nearly a daily ritual. We could do without that. (They are so prevalent that I just stopped to save this post before typing further for fear that the power will drop out any minute now...)

- Seinfeld. Insanity. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_Roaster

- A newspaper. Completely in English.

- A clear television. Our rabbit ears are pitiful.

- A bed without the inverted camel-hump thing going for it. Stef and I always wake up piled on top of each other in the middle of our bed - thanks largely to it's taco shell shape. High class.

- Much, much, more... :)

No matter, we will try to be less contemptuous with the familiar in the future.

1 comment:

  1. I feel your longing for the familiar. Mine was to have clean clothes. I mean REALLY clean clothes. No matter how hard I scrubbed my socks in the bucket with the soap they were never really "clean". Susan sent me a care package with a package of new socks and panites...I cried because they were truly clean. And I serously missed HEB and electricity.

    Praying for you two...Shannon :)

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