How lucky are we to live in a world with love as its foundation…
A love that’s universal…but with infinite variations.
For instance…there’s the love we have for our family, our friends…
love between two men, two women…between a woman and a man…
There’s love for food…for sunsets, rainbows, and of course…love of a flying pan.
Yes, today it’s a cast iron skillet I happen to be thinking of…
because every time Deborah cooks in it…it makes me think of love.
When it comes to choosing a pan to cook in….that skillet is the one she prefers…
It was her grandmothers then her mothers before being passed down to her.
Every time she uses it…the moment she removes it from the drawer…
she thinks of all the people who have cooked in it before.
She thinks of all the meals cooked in it…and as more and more memories arise…
it’s not always chopping onions that brings tears to Deborah’s eyes.
It’s easy to see how, over the years I, too, have become a fan…
because everything tastes better…cooked in that old frying pan.
Every meal cooked in it…has…from love…been grown.
Could it be that memories stored in an old frying pan have a flavor all their own?
Deborah’s love for that cast iron skillet…is so very plain to see…
When she picks it up she often looks at…the way she sometimes looks at me.
ii thought she was looking at me ‘that way’ once and into her love I felt totally immersed
Until she said, “If we ever have a fire in this house…I think I’d save my skillet first.”
And I am perfectly okay with that…I think we can all agree….
After all…she’s known that cast-iron skillet…longer than she’s known me.
It’ really very simple…that pan will last forever..
If its nurtured and taken care of….
And is that not the very foundation
the very essence
the very meaning and definition of love?