Parsley

I had a different experience with the whole parsley stuck in teeth last night. I was having dinner with a group of new colleagues who I’ve known for about eight weeks. We’ve all become close and friendly. There is one girl in the group who is absolutely lovely, beautiful and charming but doesn’t seem to have any care in the world or awareness of how she eats. On the first day I met her we were chatting on a break and she was eating some couscous or something like that and as she spoke to me she accidentally spat out a white piece of food onto my left arm, which was quite awkward, but she didn’t apologize or seem to think anything of it. A few moments later she continued to talk and I could see all the food in her mouth, which was a concoction of leaves, nuts and all sorts of things and again another piece of greyish food came out, which fortunately missed me. The next day she spat onto my chest what I think some rice.

This girl, I realised, has basically just written off caring about what she eats, who sees it and where it goes. So last night we were all having dinner and she chose a salad which contained all sorts of things which I soon saw in her mouth as she ate and told a story. A large piece of parsley got stuck on one of her front top teeth. I have a rule about parsley that when it gets stuck in someone’s teeth you have an obligation to tell the person, so I gently brought her attention to it so we could all hear the story rather than awkwardly stare at a herb. But rather than washing it out and thanking me, she said: “Oh don’t worry about it” and then carried on eating and telling her story! It was as if she assumed more would get stuck so it wasn’t worth getting rid of this one. I couldn’t believe it.

As she spoke I just watched this piece of parsley gently dance around her teeth, and she knew it were there, and the rest of the table knew it was there but she didn’t care, she just kept on as if everything was normal! It was incredibly uncomfortable. I had to look at my plate so I could actually concentrate on what she was saying. That is taking parsley to a new level. So the conclusion to this little piece, may be pretty obvious, but I realised that it’s actually not just your obligation to let people know if they have parsley in their teeth but it’s also an obligation for you not to get it stuck in your teeth because it’s just as awkward, if not more awkward for the person watching or listening to you. I do give the girl credit though; it takes a lot of confidence to tell a story knowing you have parsley in your teeth after someone has pointed it out to you. It’s a bit like someone telling you your flies are undone and you say “oh don’t worry about it.” On that point is it also your obligation to point out if someone’s flies are undone? What if it’s your boss, or your girlfriend’s mother? And does it also apply to parsley for these people?

Written by Harry
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