Things have gone a little different than expected this past month. To say the least.
Jon and I are home from Ecuador early. The excellent things I intended to jot down in my little blog scribbler ended up being complete rubbish and must pass through an extensive revision process before being posted. And I've decided to just go ahead and blog, despite saying that I would take two months off before.
Why? Well, I want to blog because I had an idea today while running and I just can't resist sharing it.
Last semester I took Intro to Sociology. For two days. And then I dropped out and transferred to a different class. Because it just didn't seem like a "concrete" enough topic for me. The only thing I remember from those two classes was something about the "sociological imagination." Well today I exercised mine and decided that I can describe all human beings with a Chocolate Chip Cookie Analogy. How's that for an imagination?
Jon and I are home from Ecuador early. The excellent things I intended to jot down in my little blog scribbler ended up being complete rubbish and must pass through an extensive revision process before being posted. And I've decided to just go ahead and blog, despite saying that I would take two months off before.
Why? Well, I want to blog because I had an idea today while running and I just can't resist sharing it.
Last semester I took Intro to Sociology. For two days. And then I dropped out and transferred to a different class. Because it just didn't seem like a "concrete" enough topic for me. The only thing I remember from those two classes was something about the "sociological imagination." Well today I exercised mine and decided that I can describe all human beings with a Chocolate Chip Cookie Analogy. How's that for an imagination?
All human beings are like Chocolate Chip Cookies.
We are all completely different, yet exactly the same.
Here's how.
I don't know of any baking creation that has more different recipes than that of Chocolate Chip Cookies. Don't believe me? Google it. You will find approximately 3, 680, 000 hits for the splendid recipe. And the beauty is that each recipe is different. Sure, they will all call for pretty much the same ingredients, (flour, sugar, chocolate chips) yet each recipe will call for different measurements, types of ingredients, and so on. Some will need baking soda, others baking powder, or maybe even both. Other recipes will be beefed up with oatmeal, walnuts, shredded coconut, Skor pieces, peanut butter, and the list goes on. Sometimes these delectable cookies replace the ingredient of their name sake with M&M's or small pieces of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Still others will need some kind of strangely unique ingredient, like 2 tablespoons of hot water or 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.
In an effort to differentiate from "lesser" recipes, some Chocolate Chip Cookies will spice up the title with a couple adjectives. For example, Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies or Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Some Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes will rise to the heights of fame and fortune. Perhaps you've heard of these stars: Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies and Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies.
And that's just talking about recipes. Once the batter is made, each individually baked cookie is different. Some are big, some are small. One cookie might have ten chips, another might only have two. Some might be baked near the edge of the cookie sheet and be more crispy than the others. Some might be damaged while being taken off the sheet. Some might belong to the batch that was forgotten and be burnt a little bit.
Long story short, every single Chocolate Chip Cookie is completely different.
However, after the kitchen is clean and the freshly baked cookies are cooling on the counter, all of those distinguishing differences seem to fade away. As each cookie disappears, one-by-one, you could ask the person eating them what it is and I guarantee they'll tell you the same thing: a Chocolate Chip Cookie.
They probably won't mention the fact that there is baking soda instead of powder in the dough. Or that it has walnuts in it.
They probably won't differentiate the cookie as being Soft and Chewy.
And they probably won't smirk and say it's a Neiman Marcus.
Despite being completely different, each cookie will ultimately turn out exactly the same as all the others: a Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Now, this is the part where my professors in university would expect me to complete the analogy with explaining exactly how this applies to humans. But I'm out of school for the summer, so I think I'll take a break from that. You can apply the analogy yourself. I think I explained it pretty clearly.
Just know that when you're feeling like an emo kid and the world is on your shoulders and that obviously, "No one understands me!!", and, "No one knows how I feel!!", you might be a little bit right. But only because you came from a rather rare recipe and were baked on the corner of the cookie sheet and got browned on the edges a little bit more. However, in the end, you are just a Chocolate Chip Cookie, just like everyone else, and us cookies can all understand each other when we just take a second to realize this similarity.
Yeah, this post was kind of random. So to make things seem more normal I shall leave you with my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (right now).
Okay bye.