Chocolate Covered Nothing

Day 118 (Written Sunday April 8) ~

I’ve been told I was evil. After I tell you this story you may agree. But before I get to my evil deeds, let me tell you about a much more innocent time. Practically from the beginning I was enamored with chocolate Easter bunnies. The first one I remember had blue candy eyes and was about a foot tall. Easter morning I discovered it, along with a basket full of goodies that I couldn’t wait to dig into, but apparently my mother could help me wait. We had to go to church first, and then we had to go eat lunch afterward and then finally I could sample my long eared treat. Alas, the wait was not worth it. Disappointment. I had foolishly assumed that the chocolate bunny was a solid, two pound, one foot tall hunk of happiness. Wrong! With one bite, my anticipation crumbled like the ears of Peter Cottontail. It was hollow and so was my soul after that. Ok, so maybe that’s just a little bit melodramatic. I was terribly disappointed to discover that chocolate Easter bunnies were actually hollow. Time has passed and I’ve made my peace with the hollow bunnies, in fact, I actually love them and still get as excited as a little kid when I get one. My Easter candy love is very limited: chocolate bunnies, Reese’s peanut butter eggs and that is it. I hate Peeps, and don’t even get me started on Cadbury eggs. As much as I was disappointed by the hollow bunnies, I was even more disgusted when I discovered that Cadbury eggs weren’t hollow (oh how I wish they had been), but instead were filled with a bizarre, unholy, candy egg like goo. Disturbing. Now, back to my evil deeds. A couple of years ago around Easter, I devised a powerful way to teach an object lesson to a group of young people. The point of the lesson was going to be about the deceptiveness of sin. It looks good on the outside, appears sweet to the taste, but really is hollow and harmful. To teach this lesson in a way that would never be forgotten, I made a hole in several chocolate bunnies and then filled them with various things like relish, mayonnaise and mustard. I then heated a knife and rubbed it over the hole to melt the chocolate and reseal it. I then devised a “contest” where the kids would have a race to see who could eat the bunny the fastest. When I said go, the opened their mouths wide and began to devour the bunny as quickly as possible. It only took a second, and a mouth filled with a chocolate mayonnaise or relish mixture, for them to begin gagging and spitting it out. I cannot help but believe that they will never, ever forget that just because something looks good on the outside, doesn’t mean it really is. Thank you Easter bunny.