Wednesday, July 23, 2014

I Needed Mustard…..


On the way home from Milwaukee today I stopped at a local grocery store. At one nearby intersection we have a Piggly Wiggly, a Pic ‘n Save, a giant Walmart and a big Walgreens with a food and alcohol section.

I parked and went into the Pic ‘n Save. It was to be a quick trip, two bananas,  some milk and a jar of mustard.

Let’s see....regular yellow mustard? Honey mustard or Dijon? Stone ground? The store brand, or Plochman’s, one with a little horseradish added? Hmmmm.....such a “difficult” decision. As I viewed the shelves, once again I realized just how fortunate I am to be able to walk into a large grocery store and have this many choices.

Then I came home and watched the evening news. Israel is granting a five hour cease fire so that families in Gaza can leave their homes and try to find food ..... bread and milk...and water.  Try to find food.  And then the Palestinians can go home again and sit through another round of rockets.

I’m not going to wander into the political here.....the history of this tragic fight. Who’s “right”, what actions are justified. The background and history of hatred and anger. The results of carving one country out of another and telling the citizens/neighbors to “get along”. This part of human history is repeated over and over - we like what you have, it used to be yours, but now it’s ours. So leave your homes, leave your land....a place where you can trace your ancestry back for centuries. Get over it - now it’s ours.

No...I won’t go there because this happens all over the world, all the time and has been happening ever since we began to trace back through historical records. The Romans, Genghis Kahn, the Sunnis and the Shiites, Boko Haram in Nigeria. Can you say American Indian reservation?

All I needed was mustard....and I could have stood there for hours and no one would have thought much about it.


Bread and milk and water to drink....five hours....find it if you can. Then get back home and try to keep your family safe.

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