Have you ever had SPAM? I recall eating SPAM sandwiches in my school lunchbox on occasion. I also remember occasional dinners when we had it pan fried and served with mustard. Must’ve been the days when the larder was a little sparse or due to scheduling my mom hadn’t made it to the grocery store.

SPAM consists of pork and ham products. Spam was introduced to the market in 1937. Originally it contained the pork shoulder which was not a popular meat cut at the time. The name is a portmanteau: a blending of two words- spiced ham. The meat is a combination of ground pork and ham with other ingredients, vacuum packed in the iconic tin and then cooked. It has a shelf life of 2-5 years although supposedly it can last indefinitely which is why it doesn’t have an expiration date.

Spam was popular during the Great Depression but it really took off during WWII because it was a stable and transportable food for the Allies. Unfortunately many veterans were quite sick of the ever present Spam meals. Consequently the Hormel Company received many a complaint letter, yet Nikita Khrushchev credited SPAM for saving the Russian army during WWII. Spam now has the connotation with unsolicited emails (made popular due to Monty Python’s skit about the restaurant having Spam in every entry on the menu) as well as the slang in British service for an unpleasant task.

I was listening to the BBC’s Outlook program and heard an interesting story told by two Swedish journalists. They were in Botswana for work and took a three day trip to the Kalahari Desert. They had a problem with their vehicle which left them stranded in the desert. They tell a harrowing tale of a couple of days in the desert as they try to get help. In the end, it was their ingenuity and the opener “key” to a can of SPAM that saved them. Click here to listen to their tale.

The thing that really caught my ear was at the end of their tale, they recalled how their different, individual gifts and talents was what saved them. They needed each other to survive. When one was in despair and paralyzed in shock, the other was ready to move forward and visa versa. Plus, in combining their different talents (one was more inventive, the other more practical), they were able to survive and get out of their situation.

I thought about that. Many times after experiencing difficulties, my husband and I will reflect that we are grateful we both didn’t collapse at the same time. We are so grateful because if both of us were down at the same time, who would encourage us?

Those Hebrew writers knew about the power of being together. In Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.”

It doesn’t necessarily have to be two as in a couple. I think of friends who have picked me up when I was blue and those who I have lifted when they have fallen. It is just another reason why we need one another.

Think about all those precautions: don’t swim alone, don’t surf alone, don’t hike alone, etc. There is a reason for having someone else with you.

We do need one another, but sometimes it may not be someone we necessarily know. Once when I had broken a bone, a woman I didn’t know hardly at all helped me in the rehab of my arm. Of course, after the experience I got to know her pretty well but going into it, she was a stranger to me who, by her own account didn’t know why she reached out in the first place to help. She was using her gifts and training to help me achieve wholeness.

The beauty of community is that we all have different gifts and talents that are needed by one another. We are all a piece of a universal puzzle and each piece is important to get the whole picture.

What about you? Have you ever had an experience when you needed the collective input of those with you in order to get through it? What was it? Have you ever used an object, whether in your travels or home, in a totally unexpected way to solve a problem?

Actually, the real question is- have you ever tried SPAM?