Cameron wrote in a comment to Will’s post on different types of milk chocolate as experienced by Will: “Jeez ya’ll sound like a bunch of women orgasming over freakin chocolate.”
Clearly, Cameron is trying to cadge a little from this Patriactionary for his own Road to Damascus conversion. Cerca, trova, Cameron; I will not send.
But Will touched on something in his note, especially with his having the good sense to know that the Michel Cluizel salted caramel bar is the best he has ever had. I have to agree and thank the Lord it’s expensive because it’s thoroughly irresistible. There might be a better milk chocolate bar on the planet, and I will continually evaluate them, but I’ve found no better.
Will also discussed beer. Famously, Ben Franklin once wrote that “Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.” As the Germans say: “Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalts.” (Hops and malt express God’s essence.) And Will has the concept of lawnmower beer exactly correct: one of those cheap, lightly-flavored, adulterated-with-non-barley-malt brewed contraptions that hardly qualify as beer or quality ale. However, they, too, serve their purpose one a hot summer’s day when, iced and ignoring any flavor whatsoever, their alcohol content allows you to drink them at 32 degrees and slake a thirst. They resemble beer in having alcohol, some malt, and fizz, but cognoscenti know they’re not close.
John Zmirak once wrote that the Virgin Mary was in some ways more impressive than Jesus because Jesus, being God, COULDN’T sin, while Mary, being human, DIDN’T sin which was more of a challenge for a human, and so qualified for assumption into Heaven. Those two serve as role models of perfection to the rest of us, and those who approach them most closely my church designates with the recognition of Saint, as a human whose soul has been found fitting to dwell with God. I know if I had fasted for 40 days and Satan tempted me to turn stones into bread and I had the power to do so, I would do so: I couldn’t even resist the temptation of a Michel Cluizel Salted Caramel bar for 14 days if fully fed.
Jesus is the archetype for men, as Mary is for women. We will all fall short of the target, but some of us will come very close in this life and become Saints; we Papists believe most will hit the target like scoring in horseshoes and hand grenades, and be enough in the ballpark to gain access to Purgatory, where our souls will be made cleansed enough to someday be in God’s presence. But the striving after perfection, in chocolate and sanctity, is the only way we know to get closer to the bullseye.
Welcome to the world of good chocolate, Will.