Personal Demons with BBQ

[retired trucker]

Many years ago I worked for a really nice Jewish fellow. He took me out to lunch one day to a great Q joint in Houston Tx. He ordered a large pork sandwich, and looked me in the eye and said if you tell anyone that I ate this, I will heartily deny it.

A good pulled pork sandwich can work miracles in changing old ( in my mind silly ) traditions and religious beliefs. A good fat pig is one of the best things God put on this earth for us to enjoy!

Omar

 

[Kathy's Smokin']

Brother Smokin J's PIts, the fact that you have compassion for those that are different from you, that hold different beliefs than you hold, makes you a stellar human being in my eyes.

I grew up with strict rules of eating and I can say that even though the religious beliefs of my family were forced on me, and I hated that to my core, I had some serious reactions to eating pork the first time as a teenager. It's conditioning, I was saturated with dogma from birth and it weighed on me even though I rejected the religion both sides of my family followed. Breaking free from that and other dogma has given me many transformational life experiences. I believe nothing happens by coincidence. You can take on responsibility for the wind blowing labels and your friend having another serving through tears and obvious emotional upheaval if you want to but I think it's unnecessary. I don't know what your beliefs are, but if you believe in God or Spirit or Enlightenment or a unifying energy, etc., then you do know you did not orchestrate what happened. There is a larger lesson in play than you have the ability to understand right now and likely it's a larger lesson than your friend has the ability to understand right now, too. My advice is to cut yourself some slack and surrender to the idea of yourself as a witness to or an assistant of the Divine. You bore no malice and no trickery, you are clear of wrongdoing.

 

[bbqlearner]

The way I see it, you did the right thing. What happens afterwards is not your responsibility. You can't prevent bird from trying to land on your head but you sure can prevent it from building a nest there so it's really his choice.

 

[gtr]

As already stated, your conscientiousness is readily apparent in your post, and if more people had the same level of thoughtfulness for others the world would be a much better place. You did everything you could do, and he made his choice, which he will have to work out for himself. Kudos to you for showing some humanity.

 

[haunas]

Good on you for being considerate to individual beliefs, diets, etc. I thought it was awesome since I always say that food can bring anyone together. Let's just eat and then talk about differences on a full belly.

 

[Woody Butthrie]

Anyone have a Hindu coworker and a to die for Brisket?

LOL. My previous neighbors on one side were from India. The Shahs. She was a devout vegetarian, but he loved steaks and hamburgers, and would smoke a cig afterwards. I will say her vegetable pancakes were awesome.

Has anyone considered that the tears were tears of Joy?