This may be a bit of an odd story. But here it goes. Have you ever watched a moonbeam? No. Me either. I don’t even know what that question is about. Now, have you ever looked down and seen that your fingers are all bloody? I bet a few of you have. There’s nothing nefarious here, really.

See, I just looked down and saw that two of my fingers are bleeding. I didn’t cut myself. I didn’t get my hand caught in something. I didn’t carry any unwieldy item. I simply bit my fingers. Gross. Yes, I am one of those people. As long as I can remember I have been biting my nails. It’s how I came to like spicy food. Weird, right? My mom used to put tabasco sauce on my nails in the hope of discouraging me from biting my nails. Didn’t work. I just ended up liking spicy food as a result. Although, I don’t care for Tabasco sauce itself, per se. Taste buds are such a strange thing. My son used to love gnocchi with béchamel sauce as a kid. Now, not so much. Then there is that kid who recently went blind because he only ate six things, including potato chips. He just didn’t like other tastes.

Regardless of how taste buds get formed, we have them. Or rather, we have certain taste predilections. Then, we also have certain behaviors (bad habits) that we do, that we wish we didn’t. Although, I must admit I don’t even care about biting my nails. I’m in what behavior change psychologists refer to as pre-contemplation. I’m nowhere near contemplating stopping my nail-biting behavior. It gets me through the day. But, it does at times lead to bloody fingers.

So, I looked down at my fingers and saw that two of them were bleeding. I used them as a weird feedback mechanism to myself. Upon seeing them I surmised I was either stressed, anxious, or angry. Maybe even happy. I suppose that as a feedback mechanism it’s not very precise. I was just recently told that people can tell when I’m about to lose my patience because I start getting fidgety and shift in my chair. Sadly, not everyone has gotten that memo and some still drone on and on despite my seat shifting.

Upon seeing my bloody fingers I started to crave a pickle. I’m joking. It was chips and salsa that I craved. Which honestly, would have caused my fingers some further pain. I stayed away from food. I instead got up and washed my hands. And, then I did a little dance.