Ice Cream Heart

I have to first of all thank my friend for planting the seed of this idea in the fertile fields of my mind. She said that she wished loving someone was as easy as loving ice cream. I couldn’t agree with her more. I do think love and ice cream have a lot of similarities.

Often, love can start out pretty frozen and hard, difficult to bite into and occasionally a little cold in the mouth; over a short time however it starts to melt and gets to a point that is easy to eat and you can experience all its full and robust flavors. It becomes a special joy to eat and sometimes one scoop or bowl isn’t enough. But then, if it’s not eaten quickly enough or it’s left out too long, it gets all runny and becomes a sloppy mess all over the counter. It’s sticky and if left out even longer becomes hard and difficult to remove even with some of the best household cleaners.

So I can say that love and ice cream do have quite a lot in common; although the differences are easily more numerous. Who ever heard of ice cream keeping you warm under the blankets on a long winter’s night? One is a cold sweet food and the other picks you up at the airport at three o’clock in the morning with a hot cup of coffee ready for you. If you really don’t know the difference then you’ve got more problems that this article can help you with. .

Loving anyone is never easy. In fact, if it’s worth doing, then it ought to be difficult. Love is the most misused and misunderstood of all the complicated emotions we experience in this life. I still can’t say I know all that much about it. I’ve been in love several times, each time was a little different than the last and the next time I’m sure will be different too. I can say that each time, it’s been marvelous. No matter how awful the heartbreak afterwards I’ve been able to value the experience and I think in each instance it made me a better person.  I’d like to see a McFlurry do that.

I do know that love is worth it. (Unless that love treats you like a bag of monkey scat and throws you at the tourists as they pass your cage) But for the most part, love is totally worth it. Even if it ends, it was still worth the experience and the knowledge gained.

Ice cream can satisfy you for a while and cause the release of endorphins in your brain when the deliciousness touches your tongue. But it will never compare to the simple hand holding that loving intimacy can bring, or even how the thought of the person you love can release a warmth and comfort in your stomach and head. How that feeling can stay with you long after that person is gone. In both cases you’re usually left with something to clean up. You can wash the bowl out in the sink and pick a new flavor from the freezer or you can clear your head and get on with the next stage of your life. Either way, there's work involved and it takes time and patience to get it right. All I know is ice cream will never love you back as much as you want to love it.  

Then again, I hate ice cream.