Oh cheese, how I miss you….
When I was but a lad, I used to work in a grocery store deli. It was kind of like working in a high-tech lab because we wore white coats and there was lots of big, fancy equipment and we had to sterilize stuff. But it also was different from a lab because we would always be cutting a lot of meat.
We did many things in those halcyon days of deli work. Besides cutting meat, we would fill little bowls with various salads, we would make sandwiches for people, we would make fruit salad in an enormous bucket (by the way, not enough people prepare food in giant buckets these days), we would give frozen chickens rub downs with spices in a big freezer full of meat, and, occasionally when things got tough, we would help out in the bakery.
In the end though, deli work was tough. There were constant demands–people wanted their meat thinner, they wanted it thicker, they wanted it shredded, they wanted it in a fine paste that could be smeared on a piece of bread. There were enormous knives spinning and slicing all day, big chunks of meat flying around everywhere. In a way, it was odd that it did not bother me as much. I mean, simply changing the name of something makes a difference–think of the difference between a floor covered with bits of roast beef versus a floor covered with cow bits.
But there was one respite from this crazy world of meat: cheese. Down at the other end of the deli, far from the madding crowd of corn beef and prosciutto, there was the cheese counter. It was always so peaceful in cheese. One or two people, carefully slicing provolone and wrapping it up with plastic on a little styrofoam tray. Ahhhh. It was a relaxed and carefree world down in cheese. Customers simply came and selected their preferred package of cheese. There was no yelling and demanding.
Oh cheese! You are creamy and smooth whilst meat is stringy and tough! Oh cheese! You are a gentle aria whilst meat is thrash metal!
Oh cheese! You are an angel upon a cloud whilst meat is a demon buried in the bowels of the Earth.
Now, in this hectic world of public relations that I find myself swept up in, there is no cheese counter to retreat to when the day is rough. As we grow up, we find that our world is so much more meat than cheese. Every once in a while, in this crazy world, it does us all good to find the cheese. So tonight, I will go back to my apartment, grab a block of Velveeta, sit out on the fire escape and look at the stars. And to you I say only this…
Find the cheese. Find the peaceful cheese.