At one of the companies I worked at for a dozen years, there was a cafeteria with daily hot meals, soup, salad bar and made-to-order sandwiches. It’s been years since I thought of it but recently I remembered my favorite lunch there, a skinny cheese sandwich. It consisted of two pieces of American cheese and a little mustard on rye bread.
I made one this week and the strangest thing happened. My mind and mouth immediately thought of pretzels. That was always my side with a skinny cheese, a somewhat healthier choice than potato chips. I had never before nor since paired a sandwich with pretzels. Taste buds are not a muscles but it felt like muscle memory to me that I not have one without the other.
It’s remarkable how much we remember but equally fascinating how much we forget. Luckily, when our minds don’t recall, our bodies often do. Like skinny cheese and pretzels, they are a wonderful complement to each other.