The Peppermint Chronicles

I know a horse named Lena who loves peppermints. She knows the crinkle of the wrapper from across her stall. If you give Lena a mint, she puts it immediately in her back teeth - crunch crunch - and it's gone, at which point she tries to nudge you for another one.


Rocky treats peppermints a little differently.  I'll hold the mint to his nose and he'll take an exaggerated sniff and excitedly take it off my hand with his lips. But then it gets odd. He doesn't chew it, but kind of rolls it around in his mouth. He'll try to crunch it with his front teeth but the pieces can't stay in his mouth and they'll fall to the ground. So I've started keeping my hand under his mouth to catch the pieces and give them back, which he sucks back up. He'll take the smaller pieces and do the same thing again, rolling it around, like he's actually savoring the mint. After all remnants of the mint are finally gone, he stands there licking his lips, for forever... At first I thought it was treats in general, that maybe he just didn't know what to do with a treat - but he crunches his apple-flavored horse treats right away, keeping the pieces in his mouth. I can't imagine, however that this will go on forever - I don't truly believe that he's really sucking on peppermints instead of eating them, I think he just needs more experience with them.

It got me thinking though. (Shocking, I know). As humans, I think we tend to adopt one of these methods when a good thing falls in our lap. Some of us accept it immediately, taking it in without so much as a second thought, devour it, and are instantly ready for the next thing. Others, although excited about the good thing, roll it around first - maybe savoring it, maybe unsure of what to do actually do with it - but letting a few pieces will fall out along the way; maybe you get the pieces back, maybe you don't. 

On a deeper level though, one could argue whether or not a 'peppermint' is really a 'good thing'? And does a 'good thing' depend on the intrinsic value of the thing itself, the 'taste buds' of the beneficiary, or the ideology and opinions of the person giving the thing? And finally, if it's determined that the 'peppermint' is actually a 'good thing', can one achieve a happy medium? Somewhere between Lena and Rocky? What is it that gets us there...

Just a little food for thought...