What We Love

From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

—Psalm 33:13–15

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, the host of The Splendid Table on NPR, says there are two kinds of people in the world: people who wake up thinking about what to have for supper and people who don’t. I am in the first camp, certainly.

I wake up in the morning and I think about dinner. I think about the food and the people and the things we might discover about life and about each other. I think about the sizzle of oil in a pan and the smell of rosemary released with a knife cut. It could be that that’s how God made me the moment I was born, and it could be that that’s how God made me along the way as I’ve given up years of secrecy, denial, and embarrassment. What matters is that one of the ways we grow up is by declaring what we love.

I love the table. I love food, what it means, what it does, and how it feels in my hands. It’s morning and I’m hungry. I’m thinking about dinner, not just tonight, but the next night and the next. There are two kinds of people, and I’m tired of pretending I’m the other.