It takes guts!

I have been plagued with a case of the busiees and writer's block lately. With the summer reading program at the library in full swing and all the planning and organizing that goes along with it, things have certainly taken a crazy spin. I have to say though, even with the busy-ness, I LOVE summer. I love the sunshine and warm days, I love swimming and traveling, and mostly I love going up to Long Lake for the 4th of July. It was just this past holiday weekend that gave me the break to my writer's block by giving me time to observe my family in a (very) relaxed environment. In particular, my brother Mike. Now, if you know Mike, the following statement would not surprise you at all, but for those who aren't acquainted with the eldest of us five kids, allow me to say: This guy is weird. I have also pretty much adored this lunatic for most of my life, but I'll save that for another story. Mike does the unusual on a regular basis and sometimes I wonder if he gets nothing but supreme joy from grossing me out. Let's talk food, for example. Everyone likes different things to eat, right? I know I do, but Mike likes very different things. Things that I would never, ever eat. Ever. He's been to China and sampled all sorts of um, unusual treats, drinks with flames have never caused him to bat an eyelash, and if there's anything that calls for some heat or spice, then Mike's best friend is the bottle of Tabasco sauce. When we were growing up, the most exotic thing Mom ever made was spanish rice-- which I detested. And with a dad who wasn't exactly a foodie, there wasn't a whole lot of room for experimentation. Where Mike got his sense of culinary adventure is beyond me. However, last weekend when our chef-du-jour, Lindsey, was grilling what she nicely calls "beer-butt chicken" (which happens to be phenomenal, by the way) he asked that she also cook up the innards of the bird. Yes, the neck, giblets (whatever those are), kidneys, heart, etc-- all the guts. Lindsey is a fantastic cook and I imagine has tried all sorts of recipes from all over, but even she gagged a little over the slimy slop on the counter top before her. She visibly flinched as she plopped the guts on a piece of foil, seasoned them, wrapped them up and tossed them on the grill. After estimating the grilling time, Lindsey removed the foil packet and presented it to Mike with a description of what she had done to them, hoping that was how the "parts" were to be cooked. He was overjoyed that there was this "treat" just for him, and I nearly had to choke back what I had last eaten. I made sure to tell him I thought the guts of a chicken were gross on any level, but cooked up and eaten on purpose was just foul. Um...no pun intended. He responded by saying that the way humans eat has changed radically in that past couple hundred years, and that our ancient ancestors always ate what they killed from the inside out. Some creatures like lions, would eat the insides of their prey and leave the muscle-part that we humans now prefer, for the hyenas and other scavengers to finish off. Yeah, so call me crazy, but there's something to be said for evolution. I don't know if I'm all that refined of an eater, but if I had to eat the innards of an animal for dinner, I'm pretty sure I'd become a vegetarian. I guess I just don't have the guts...to eat guts.