Really big chocolate cookies are for dreamers
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When I was in high school, the little store on campus sold giant cookies. They seemed about U.F.O. sized and everyone’s favorite choice was the chocolate chip kind because you could see endless amounts of chocolate chips through the plastic wrap that held it all together.
The computer lab lady always had one. I don’t think she took a break for lunch, and she rarely left the computer lab, so the big cookie was what sustained her and gave her the energy to keep things in order.
Computer labs were a special place. We were learning how to sign up for our first email accounts and surfing the net was something very different than it is today. I don’t remember exactly what there was to do on the internet in those days since there was no YouTube or social media. Still, we managed to waste time on the internet.
I like to think about the wheel-sized cookies the little store would sell us. Everything seemed bigger back then and cookies shouldn’t be left out of being preposterous in size. They must have cost about a dollar which was more expensive than the bag of chips or other snacks on the counter.
In our society, nothing can be too big. Cookies or cars. Houses or dreams. Until things do get too big, and then they become pocket-sized. High school computers and printers were larger. Hairdos too.
Everything seems bigger when you’re smaller. The size of the teacher’s ruler. The globe in the corner of the room. The school bus that could fit your whole class and more. The yearbook felt like an encyclopedia. The walk home. It was longer then.
We could use saucer-sized cookies in our lives. Not for the calories, but for the feeling that there are some things that are still too big for us to hold in our hands, and still we try.
We need to be more like our adolescent selves. The thinkers and the daydreamers. The backyard fort builders and the break things apart to make them better kind. Things didn’t always turn out the way we planned. They still don’t.
Life is less interesting when everything feels small. When you have tiny feet, the town park feels like Disneyland…
