In the supermarket, I stood with my nose closed on the spice shelf, next to a man who couldn’t find what he was looking for either. Like me, he had clearly forgotten his glasses. There were a lot of spices. When the time came when we actually had to switch places to continue the search, he said, “I’m looking for turmeric. You?’
It was great that I immediately understood his meaning, even better that at a glance I saw his turmeric, and he my oregano, and nothing short of wonderful that we handed each other the jars wordlessly, after which we parted with a smile, knowing that for a second we had the had been best friends.
Once outside, I thought of Koot and Bie, who once invented the wonderful concept of ‘kicks for nothing’. Actually, the spice swap didn’t fit in there, because you experienced their kicks (stacking squeezed oranges, turning off the light with your chin) solo. Still, I think they counted him correctly.
