Pretzels

I remember the first time I had them. It was on a flight to Atlanta from Paris two years ago. I had found them to be disgusting, tasteless and had thrown the pack away. Recently I went on a trip, and every time the flight attendants offered me the small pack, I gobbled it up. Its amazing how my tolerance has gone up and my tastes have changed. For those who haven't had pretzels before, they are biscuit like snacks, normally salted. All flights in the US invariably serve them with drinks. And sometimes they are not even salted. For reference

http://www.answers.com/topic/pretzel

Those who are used to having spicy Indian snacks, I advise them to stay away from pretzels. Being in this place long enough has made me tolerant to even the worst tasteless stuff. I feel I can eat anything now if it is edible, cooked or uncooked. I am sorry but I still feel strongly about worms, snakes, rodents and insects being inedible.

Fear

It is one of the most amazing emotions. Fear of heights, fear of water, fear of snakes, fear of failure... If you have watched Fear Factor then you know that letting worms crawl over one is as difficult as falling off a bridge. And the granddaddy of them all - Fear of Death, the one thing which is common to most living things. Though the fear of losing your loved ones, fear of failing, etc. might be stronger in certain people than fear of death itself, most fears are directly related to it. I feel that this single emotion binds us all, more than anything else.

Watching Batman conquer his fears and defeat the Scarecrow was one of my favourite cartoon episodes as a kid. I used to wonder(still do) whether it is possible for a person to get over his/her fears. Will I be ever able to hold snakes in my hand? Wouldn't it have been nice if my brain weren't fear conditioned in the first place. I could have gone for skydiving or bungee jumping or something like that. We constantly change our fears as we grow and age, some become stronger and some weaker. How you handle your fears is how you handle life.

I feel fear is underrated. It is stronger than love, hate, jealousy, joy or courage. As the Scarecrow would say "The only thing to fear is fear itself".