Black licorice is the dividing line between people. It is one of those confections that either you love it or you dont’. There really is no gray area.
If you love black licorice and you find someone else who loves it too and that person happens to be a friend or a family member, or remarkably your significant other, you have something GREAT to be truly thankful for.
A fellow black licorice appreciator will understand when you are shopping together and you see bags of licorice all-sorts that only used to be available when you were kids and you haven’t had any in such a long time, that you grab two huge bags off the shelf, wheezing out :OMG! OMG!
Your safe community where you can talk about black licorice will understand when you show up in a sugar coma and the horrible aftertaste in your mouth from over-dosing on the “wormwood”. Goes down like honey, but tastes like bitter gall later.
The little time bombs of disaster don’t really give you warning that the crash is coming. You just keep eating it because it tastes so good and reminds you of summer when you were seven and running through the sprinkler and also consuming pixie sticks and koolaid and popsicles. You never saw the sugar coma crash coming. And it is also the first thing you completely forget about.
All that stays in the warm fuzzy part of your brain that stores memories of the “good old days” is the wonderful rich licorice chewing memories.
Its a set up for disaster.
How do you know when you’ve eaten too much licorice. Its’ always two handfuls shoved down that you should have said no thanks to when you still wanted some more.
Is there a reasonable number of little black jelly beans a person can eat and then just stop. Stop cold, before the fog and bile rises up and you realize too late that you’ve eaten too much.
At that point, there is no antidote. There is no antivenom. Nothing can undue the damage except time.
You can try brushing your teeth, but there is no toothpast that tastes good after a black licorice overdose.
You can drink cold water, or something salty. But that will likely lead to other bad stomach problems.
All we can do is look out for one another and offer gentle reminders: quit before you’ve reached the point of no return.
We smile politely at each other and we just know we’ll do it again.
Except for the power and grace we invite into the situation from the Almighty God.
Blessings, I wish you the joy of moderation in licorice.
lifefullyinhabited 