Grilling as an Exercise in Multiculturalism

In grilling, as in any activity, a sense of proportion and balance is important.

Balance between a fire that's too hot and one that's not hot enough.

Balance between leaving a burger with a frozen core, and creating a burger briquette.

Balance between regarding the grilling of hamburger patties as a mere heating of meat, and contemplating the metaphysics of existential phenomena.

On June 10 of last year, I nearly incinerated one side of a hamburger patty. That part of the cosmos, which had been a hamburger patty, was out of balance.

Observing a brief moment of silence, contemplating the burger briquette, I forged ahead and saw that day's grilling through to the end.

As I recall, my wife let me have the burned burger. I like burgers ultra-crisp.

Later, recognizing that in a global culture there are many ways of dealing with such unexpected events as a burger's evolution from meat patty to charred mini-discus, I pondered how I might at once celebrate a multi-cultural perspective, contemplate a burned hamburger as a metaphor for life, and have some fun.

Here's what I came up with:

While Grilling on a Weekend

Flipping one too late,
I see darkness on a burger's bottom:
grilled not wisely, but too well