Often, things are not what they
appear from the outside. What presents
itself in an exciting external wrapper frequently turns out to be the same old
mundane, second-rate stuff. Witness
those egg rolls you purchased because of the mouth watering picture on the box,
followed by the great disappointment you felt after following the cooking
instructions to the letter and popping the first morsel into your mouth.
I love chocolates, as does my
wife. As teachers, we often receive
several boxes as gifts from our students during the Christmas season. We especially enjoy those containing
nuts. What we usually do not enjoy, are
the various cream filled varieties, so when we found ourselves staring at a new
box, we decided to sample each one to see if we liked any. Few of the chocolates contained nuts or a
filling that we found to our liking, so when we were finished, the box was merely
filled with candy that looked like it had been visited by several mice. We replaced the lid and set it aside where it
remained for several months.
The school board chairman and my
good friend began coming to my house each Sunday to help finish my
basement. One such morning, he arrived
quite early. I was still in bed. On my way to the door, I spotted the disregarded
chocolates and decided to offer them to George.
I left the box on the table in front of him and went back to the bedroom
to get dressed.
While pulling up my socks, it became
obvious to me that he had lifted the lid, as the intense laughter that presently
filled the house was impossible to ignore.
I too, began to laugh, as did my good wife as we envisioned George
sitting on our sofa staring into the box of abused candies. But what I had envisioned, took second place
to the humorous situation I encountered as I entered the living room, for there
sat George happily eating the half eaten chocolates.
In this case, the package indicated
a delicious product which to two persons was of an inferior quality while to
another, while the product appeared less
than perfect, the taste was found to be superior.
Individuals have a great deal in
common with those egg rolls and chocolates.
- Louis Roquain
- Louis Roquain
