ice cream.

of course, it's a family tradition to love ice cream. especially of the peanut butter variety. it's a tradition in our house to have at least six different half gallons in the outside freezer, or the "ice cream freezer" as my friends like to describe it. ice cream may very well be my favorite food. as i think back on my life through ice cream, i find it fascinating how much life and connection has happened over a bowl of dairy goodness.

this post is inspired by an interaction at joseph's house last week. there was an older, white, pretty crotchety man who had end-stage AIDS who came to the house. he was really bossy; i couldn't do anything right, couldn't position the pillows right, couldn't get him the right ratio of ice to water, couldn't put his blankets on correctly. eventually, however, it came out that he likes ice cream. at that moment, i looked at him and said "i know we're going to be friends." and finally, he smiled at me. that night after dinner time, we shared ice cream together, clinking our bowls. "to ice cream! to each other! to this moment!" we said. he ate three bowls, falling asleep in between so that the ice cream melted and mixed with the chocolate syrup i had poured on top from the giant costco hershey's syrup container. i felt so grateful for that moment of connection.

i've had lots of other beautiful ice cream moments at j-house - another resident telling me he loved it so much he just wanted to lick the bowl, and so he did, and i did, and we laughed and laughed. a man who used to walk me to the coffee shop on the corner and buy us each ice cream cones that we licked while we walked back to sit on the front porch. ice cream seems to be a food that's easy to swallow and delicious; when nothing else can go down, ice cream sometimes still does the trick.

there have been so many beautiful ice cream moments in my life. with a little girl we met in zambia; with my girlfriends at sleepovers after getting out of the hot tub; at goodnoes with my grandfather, trying to finish a giant atomic sundae; on dates; at the beach; at birthdays; at christmas; at skytop (on top of chocolate obsession!); in a fancy dress at dairy queen with a friend who put on a suit just so we could match and get blizzards; after band concerts, choir concerts; at the cornell dairy; in paris by notre dame; in north carolina with my family; after a rousing game of mini golf in the Q...

as i think over all the ice cream i've had in my life and all the beautiful people i've shared it with, i feel incredibly grateful. not guilty for eating so much of a high calorie food, not guilty for eating so much of a treat when so many people go hungry... there will always be more things to feel guilty about, and it's good to be both healthy and socially conscious. but it's also good to celebrate, to enjoy the goodness of life with others.

taste and see that the Lord is good. ice cream, to me, is a little taste of God's goodness. especially when it's shared.