The Evolution of Gruel

It starts off innocent enough. “Hey lets have soup tonight” someone says. “That sounds good” comes the reply. The soup is composed of the usual suspects, potatoes, carrots, onions, and meat-cow, horse, sheep, goat, yak, camel, or a mixture of. “That was good” she says, and this is where it begins. “We can even have it for lunch tomorrow”. “Good idea” he says like a fool. Fate, destiny, providence, whatever you call it has now taken over. Fast-forward to the next day, “I’m going to add some more water to the soup so that we can have it for dinner tonight too” she says. “Good idea” he says, lulled by the temptation of not having to cook. The soup however refuses to die at dinner and like all successful creatures upon this planet is forced to evolve. “We should add some rice to the soup for dinner because it is mostly broth now” she observes. “Good idea” he says with a vague feeling of dread wrapping its fingers around his stomach. He dismisses this as yet another round of splatter foot and continues unaware. The soup is now changing, while it is still soup it is now becoming something else, something terrible. The next day the soup is avoided for lunch by a tactful “Lets go out for lunch today”. At dinner the soup has now evolved, it is no longer soup, the rice has completely melded with the soup and is now mush. The prospect of eating this is grim and neither one of us has the cojones to dig right in, until. “Maybe if we heat it back up and add some cheese and hot sauce it wont be so bad”. It is now gruel, and then the inevitable, “Not bad for gruel eh?” “No, not bad for gruel.”