Some mornings I am lucky enough to have a breakfast of Greek yogurt, topped with walnuts and drizzled with honey. I don’t particularly care for yogurt, or for nuts of any kind, yet I have affection for this small luxury. Perhaps the honey is doing the heavy lifting, but honey isn’t enough to make me like baklava which I would love if it had no nuts despoiling. I know this breakfast reminds me of the first time I had it, on the island of Naxos, where my grandfather was born. That may be part of my psychology.
Some mornings, I am unable to comprehend how there can be enough honey, or walnuts or even milk to ferment for me to have any of these things. The scale of our human numbers are dizzying. 8 billion of us!
How can there be enough honey to go around?
The simple answer is: there isn’t. 8 billion people can’t have honey every morning. I am one of the privileged few living in a wealthy nation, rich in resources, where many feel entitled to honey and milk and digital streams of entertainment. Of those 8 billion people, a billion may go hungry today.
We’ve all had these thoughts — I think. Maybe not in middle age. By then, so many of us calcify. But also, we cannot function if we wonder if we deserve each spoonful. We do. I promise. But everyone does. We do not deserve it more. I would have everyone enjoy this if they wanted.
When I am able to conjure my best self, I try to enjoy it. I owe that to the honey and the bees. I owe it to the walnuts and the cow. I can savor the honey’s distinct sweet gold against the yogurt’s tang. I can take pleasure in the slight resistance each walnut gives as I bite down — walnuts I dislike in nearly every other scenario here become a visceral pleasure.
I will confess, that is not what I do most of the time. Who has time? I eat my breakfast and think of other things. But not today. Today I still have honey flavor clinging to to my teeth as I write these words. Today I took a picture to share. Look at the translucent beauty of it all in the winter sun! My thank you to the bees and cows and whoever cracked the walnuts for me.
