Radical Hospitality...Risk

My husband gives me great pleasure by turning up his nose at certain foods...namely things he has never tried or new recipes that are out-of-the-ordinary-Kraft-box. The most recent example is his dismissal of a  "fried lemon and chili flakes pasta" which was the top pasta recipe on the NYT website for 2014. Sounded interesting to me.

So one night we had our kids over, and I decided to be adventurous and make that. He was appropriately dismissive. He didn't think it would be good. It sounded weird.

I was grateful for the pending opportunity...I knew what was coming.

So the pasta was made, and the first bite was taken and it was...spectacular. Not a drop was left. He...loved it. (He really does have excellent taste when you can pry the teeth open.) And then I get the pleasure of kidding him unmercifully.

Same thing happened with spinach...

Guacamole...

Roasted brussel sprouts...and the list goes on, but I won't.

My musing is this. Why do we limit our opportunities by limiting what we think will be good? We assume we know best, even when we haven't done things before. People we meet, jobs, food, religious practice, cars...the list is literally endless.

Radical hospitality calls us out of our comfort zone. Our first response is to say, "OK...but this is how I will do it, because this is the best way."

What might we discover if we just stepped into trust instead of dragging our heavy baggage of control and assumption along for the ride?

What spectacular experiences do we miss because, in our limited experience, we think we know the only way to go?