“It’s so big,” she said.

I had met her a month earlier at a bar in Amsterdam and after some romantic phone calls, she decided to visit me in Phoenix…all the way from Barcelona. Unfortunately, her comment on size was in reference to the airport parking structure

As Americans, we sometimes fail to recognize that our culture is supersized. Everything is big. Our meals, our buildings, our ambitions. It’s not all bad. But not all good.

The other night I watched a piece on Jose Andres who has pioneered the art of molecular gastronomy. He creates food in a way that defies the senses and the imagination. For instance, his version of a mojito is a tiny ball of jello which explodes in the mouth. His message: it’s less about size and more about flavor.
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Many years ago, my friend was on a long plane flight reading a yoga book. A man with an Indian accent said to him, “You should come try my yoga.” The Indian man told him the location of his Beverly Hills studio and went on to explain that most yoga is “like masturbating” but his style of yoga “is like making love.” Guess who this man with the Indian accent was. Bikram. The actual Bikram.

I believe Bikram and Jose Andres are on the same page.  Why masturbate when you can make love!  Less about size, more about flavor! In other words, would you rather 100 bland bites of an orange or one deliciously amazing bite? Would you rather live for 80 years of so-so happiness or 57 years of ecstatic joy? Would you exchange 50 less than average yoga classes for 1 yoga class you’d remember forever?
Stop stroking yourself with promises about what may or may not happen tomorrow. Pack all of your flavor and all of your love into one tiny little moment. This one. As goes the proverb, “Enjoy yourself. It’s later than than you think.”