The Spice of Life
My spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, is a relentless advocate for newness, always seeking fresh and creative ways to express joy and aspiration. For me, this inspires me to look for new and different types of Guinness records, sometimes beyond the fitness categories (star jumps, sit-ups, etc.). Lately, I’ve made a few forays into categories that have led to some interesting failures:
Category: Slicing apples mid-air with a samurai sword. Result: A sliced finger and, somehow, I managed to stab myself in the stomach.
Category: Continuous rotations on a giant gyroscope. Result: After 10 minutes, I had to quit for fear of losing my lunch. (I later realized eating an entire package of Swiss cheese just before the practice was probably not a wise thing to do!)
Category: Smashing watermelons with my forehead. Result: One bruised forehead, a giant headache and not a single smashed watermelon!
Fortunately, Sri Chinmoy would always remind me that failures are the pillars of success. “Never give up!” is one of his favorite mantras. After some more experimentation, I finally discovered my talent for eating garlic! As the manager of a health food store, I’ve learned of the great health benefits of garlic, but shied away from it because of the odor issues. I have to talk to people all day and I don’t want to torture them with garlic breath. There is an old New York saying, “Three nickels will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat”! Anyway, I decided to throw caution to the wind and look into breaking the garlic eating record.
