Sweet and Sour

Hot maple syrup poured over snow
so it becomes like taffy.
Served with a dill pickle.

Did i tell you that the sugar-on-snow church dinners include a dill pickle with the maple syrup drizzled on the snow? Sweet and sour, New England style. Sweet and sour--like life.

The 8 Vicissitudes sum up sweet-and-sour perfectly.

Gain and loss,

Pleasure and pain,

Praise and blame,

Fame and disrepute

come and go like the wind.

Stand like a great tree 

in the midst of them all.

As much as we only want the sweet of life, the sour is often served up soon thereafter.

When i am praised, i don't take it seriously, because i can guess what's coming down the pike--today, next week, or next year. Blame. Ouch!

Take the sweet and sour together, and you have the whole world.