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Macaroni salad-for me it doesn’t get much better than that in the food department. Something there is in me that could eat it every day and never feel like I was put upon. Over the years, I’ve put all kinds of strange ingredients in my own mac salad: peas, cheese chunks etc. But, while I love tomatoes, they shouldn’t be in mac salad. I don’t know why, it just doesn’t quite fit that image in my mind, tongue or stomach for an ideal salad. Yes, it adds zing and color, but it’s not my choice. Call me persnickety but don’t forget to call me when you’re having macaroni salad (unless you put tomatoes into it).
What does macaroni salad have to do with giving? I’m getting there.
My sister-in-law recently visited us. She’s a good cook. For a family picnic she offered to make macaroni salad. As she was cutting up the ingredients, she said, “I’m putting in lots of tomatoes”. I groaned inwardly.
She didn’t know I didn’t like tomatoes in my macaroni salad.
Lots of tomato make the perfect macaroni salad for her. It’s her recipe, her best offering. She, giving her time and talents and love to the rest of us, could give us no higher gift than her favorite. If she had chosen a different set of ingredients, she would have been giving us less than perfection. She would not have been giving us herself in the dish.
Giving is a two-way street. Giving and receiving; giver and recipient.
Given in love, a mud pie is delicious from a five-year-old’s oven.
May I be more aware of the love that makes the gift more than money, more than a valued object. May I recognize, even in an unwanted or less-than-perfect (in my eyes) gift, the intent of the giver. May I acknowledge that which is the true gift, the gift behind the gift-the heart of the giver.
