Cookie Dough Possibilities

Every year around Christmas Erin's parents come over to bake cookies. Believe it or not, this is a two day affair. One day is dedicated to making the cookie dough. This time we had 6 containers packed with dough. Then the next day is all about baking.

Yesterday was the dough day. Erin, her mom and dad made a bunch of different types of dough. I think we some chocolate chip, some peanut butter and chocolate chips, some walnut and chocolate chips, some snicker doodle and (a first this year) some sugar cookies. The sugar cookies are their attempt to appease my craving for Pot Belly's sugar cookies (so big and chewy in the middle).

Today is baking. Hundreds and hundreds of cookies are balled up and put on cookie sheets. Then hot trays are constantly swapped out of the oven for cool, unbaked ones while our dining room table is converted into an industrial kitchen cooling counter. This is the day anyone would love to be in our house, smelling the fresh baked cookies as the scents fill the air.

Now, I am a huge fan of cookies. I always have been. But I'm a bit finicky about what makes for a good cookie. If it's really going to be great it should be baked on the "rare" side (by that I really mean... Raw). I've never had a baked cookie that can compare to chomping down on a cool, crunchy, sugary, dense dough ball.

I was talking to Jeff (Erin's dad) and we got on the topic of ColdStone Creamery. They have a cookie batter ice cream, which is awesome if a bit sweet. Cookie Batter combined with some chocolate chip cookie dough, fudge, chocolate chips and maybe some caramel (everything's better with caramel) to make for an awesome ice cream. Jeff suggested that I should bring some cookie dough for them to mix in with their ice cream... maybe sugar cookie (or peanut butter for my wife). Maybe I will get some ice cream and mix the dough in myself later!

Well, that entire story is really to simply say, I love cookie dough. I love it more than cookies. Now, to be honest, I don't love it as much as fresh fruit, or even pie, but when it comes to ice cream there's certainly nothing better than one with nice big chunks of dough.

One of the reasons people seem to think I'm a little off is because I tend to look at the world a little differently. I like to look at a tree and see everything, the individual leaves, the intricate branches, the sun shining through and even the small hole which will open into a whole other world if you knock in the correct order. I love to see the unique possibilities in the normalcy.

Right now I'm just beginning "The voyage of the Dawn Treader" from the Chronicles of Narnia and got to thinking about Eustace. Eustace is so literal that he just can't imagine something more than what he sees. He just doesn't have the imagination to look at a picture and see much more than paint.

There are so many people in the world like Eustace. As we grow old we tend to look at the world and accept what we can see. I've met fewer and fewer people who can look at a bridge and see the troll living underneath or people who look at the cookie dough and only see cookies (instead of ice cream).

With Christmas coming, the thrill of possibility fills the air. The wonder of what is really in that box under the tree. The miracle that is the birth of one man who will save us all. The understanding that the kindly old man in a white beard at the mall (or even on the street) is going know where you live and leave you something special to wake up to.

Why don't we share that perspective with those "ordinary" people around us? Why don't we look at that person beside us in class, the one on the metro or the one on the bus. What about that person who just always seems to rub us the wrong way (oh, you know who I mean, I have them too). Why can't we look at that person and see the possibilities that the person can become (or even change our perspective on who they are right now). Can't we see that while we may not get along well with someone, they are a gift to this world. They have the same potential I do.

Why do we look at one another and only see the surface, as Eustace sees the world. Why do we only see that the person can become one thing, a cookie. Why don't we see the sugar cookie dough of that person is, and swirl it in ice cream instead? This Christmas I hope you'll take just one individual and notice their possibility, and the gift they are to this world.

Peace,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 2:45 PM