At this time of year, many in the United States are all aglow with Halloween and the joy of children and adults alike dressing up as someone they are not. We revisit scaring the living daylights out of one another. We may even decorate our yards with spooks and goblins. But most of all we revisit the joy of candy!
Tonight I needed to run down to the neighbor’s house to fulfill a promise. I entered their home to the smiles and enthusiasm of their three children. They are delightful… I love them as if they were my own! But let me tell ya… the biggest kid in the house is their dad!
This is a man who is president of the “Back to School Clothing Drive” (one of the largest, oldest and most successful nonprofits in the greater Phoenix area). He was super involved in his very large TV screen watching a football game… curled up on the sofa in shorts and tee shirt with bare feet. Now this doesn’t sound too much like a kid, I agree. That didn’t happen until his wife hauled out a cardboard box that had come in the mail that day.
She walked across the room and picked up the box which had been stashed under a few things to preserve it for the right moment of presentation. She grinned a knowing smile and handed the box to him… “Bet this will make you happy!” If ever a woman had been right, this was the moment. He grinned ear to ear and began to describe the contents.
“This is the best candy EVERRRRRR! From the time I was a very small boy, I use to go to the local store and buy this as my treat.” And he then told us what the first bite was like… chocolate and everything else under the sun in it. He was eating it already in his mind as he opened the box and rifled through the confetti-like packing. Out came the Mallo Cups! A lot of them… A candy in a paper cup that looked a little like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup but was not.
I must say, that after all that build-up? It didn’t look like much. And I was actually with him all the way until he told me it had cocoa nut in it. Yuckie! But I wasn’t about to tell him that …. no no. This is a man who runs all the way down to the floor of the Grand Canyon and back up just for fun. A man who weight lifts for kicks. In addition, this is a man who has a vocabulary and imagination to match, that are the size of New Jersey. No, I am not going to tell THIS man that I think his favorite candy of all time sounds like pond scum. No sir.
So the football game is in the last six minutes… his team is winning barely and the other team has possession of the ball. What is he doing? He is eating! His knees are knocked together to support his prize and he is just eating! Who cares about the game? He has left the planet for little boy heaven and there, this ever energetic, very successful, super power for charity sat chewing away any stress that the day may have presented him.
I found myself full of joy just watching him relish his trophy memory in tasteful bites. He had reunited with childhood and found himself in a way that should never be lost by anyone. Thank you, Jackson!
May you and I also hold tight to the child within us.
Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple