Chocolate is, hands down, my favorite food. It always makes me happy. And noting it’s influence in this world; I know I am not alone in my reverence of chocolate. For me, chocolate embodies a fantastical wonderful world that I wish I could live in. Consider the following facts about chocolate:
Fact 1: It comes in all colors from darkest of dark (my personal favorite) to totally white to all the colors of the rainbow. If you can create the color, you can create chocolate in that beautiful hue.
Fact 2: It comes in all consistencies from the liquid nectar of the Gods to solid blocks of precious deliciousness. If you can create the consistency, you can create flexible chocolate in that medium.
Fact 3: It goes with pretty much anything and everything. (I add “pretty much” here with intention. I know many people will have a multitude of examples of foods that chocolate does not mesh well with. I consider those the exceptions that make the rule.) Whether you are adding it to something or adding something to it, chocolate plays nice with whatever ingredients it encounters. Chocolate will change from sweet to spicy to smooth to crunchy, changing how it interacts with each ingredient it joins to make the union not only work, but improved and even more tasty.
Fact 4: Chocolate can look like anything or nothing and it is still chocolate. It is not defined by its appearance but by what it has inside. The ingredients that are within the chocolate are how it is judged. It may have the most beautiful appearance or not look like much at all, but the true connoisseur will taste the ingredients to see what it is really made up of before judging it.
That’s where I want to be. In a world of chocolate. A world where all differences…color, consistency, companions, countenance…are accepted. My experience in this world is nothing like my fantastical chocolate world. I have been wearing rose colored glasses as I believed it was “getting better” and “not as bad as it used to be”. But I was wrong. The last few years have proven me completely wrong. Forrest Gump said that life is like a box of chocolates as you never know what you are going to get. I wish life was like a box of chocolates in that everyone is equally accepted in the box no matter what type of chocolate they are.