duties

There was an ice cream carton in the freezer with just a few spoons of that delectable vanilla bean frozen confection therein contained. It is a terrible thing to leave a near empty carton in the freezer, just taking up space. One of my jobs as the man of the house is to clean up around the place, and that carton fell into my sphere of duty.

There were several bananas hanging on the little banana hanger thing that were getting on towards too ripe. Another one of my duties is to see that food is not wasted. Just the spark of an idea began to form in my mind – why not mix duty with enjoyment? Not being able to come up with a good negative answer, I set about the act of mixing the two together.

Carefully extracting a banana from its holder, I peeled it, broke it in half and placed the two broken parts in the bottom of a bowl. Now the die was cast and the scene was set, the peeled banana could not be wasted – especially since it had been broken in half. Then the peeling was put down the disposal so I would not be tempted to try to put it back on the broken banana.

The bowl was a Corelle one by Corning and it was about half the size of the one-quart containers that I usually use for extreme desserts. The banana was then squashed and mashed on the bottom of this dish with a large stainless steel fork. The near-empty container was taken from the freezer and its meager contents were emptied into the bowl on top of the banana pulp.

The amount of ice cream was so small that it looked very lonesome – the only solution I could think of was to get some from another carton to keep it company. This was done but it still didn’t look right, something was missing. Then I got some walnuts and broke them in small pieces on top of all this – see how one thing leads to another?

A near-empty bottle of chocolate syrup was in residence in the frig – I did my duty and helped empty this on top of the ice cream. I reasoned that most everything contained in the bowl so far was healthy, even the chocolate syrup contained certain elements that are reputed to be good for the body. This spur of the moment healthy thing was still missing one final crowning glory.

Carousing through the frig again, I espied the strawberry spread and decided that since this had fruit contained therein, it should top off my dish. I knew that strawberries were healthy, but I wasn’t sure at all about the spread part – maybe this was what my body did after I consumed all this.

Doing my duty in this case was much fun and delicious. Some of my duties are a bit tougher; one in particular is to love my fellow humans in word and deed – especially since some of them are not very loveable. But this is the very least I can do since Jesus Christ loved me enough to die for the wrong things I had done. This is my duty to God but also an honor to obey His Words. ec