Cookie Bites and a Popsicle Stick

Today I am reviewing Cookie Bites from Whole Foods Market.  Cookie Bites are bite-sized dessert cups. The base is a chocolate chip cookie turned into a little mini muffin, with a hollowed out middle.  The cookie is a great consistency and there are ample chocolate chips--so much so that sometimes all you get when you bite into one is a hunk of good chocolate.  The chocolate chip cookie shells are filled with a dollop of really good frosting.  The sugar content in this frosting matches exceptionally well to the flavor of the chocolate chip cookie shell.  It sounds like it would be too sweet but it is not!  I am powerless over these little desserts.  It's impossible to have just one.  Or two or three.

I don't love the name "Cookie Bites" because I'm not sure that's a very inviting name.  I think the taste of these little desserts far surpasses the attractiveness of the name.  I think they should be called something else, like "Cookie Dessert Cups" or "Chocolate Chip Cookie Treats." No matter what they are called, however, they are positively, absolutely delicious.  

What's in a name?  I have a name story.  It takes place in a third grade classroom.

There was an eight-year-old girl who had an interesting name.  One of her classroom reading assignments involved a character who had a name similar to that of the girl, which created the perfect environment for a lot of teasing. Some kids in the class seemed to find pleasure in calling the girl by this new, unattractive name, or by mixing up the two names during read-aloud time. One boy in particular was relentless in teasing the girl.  He did not let up.

Later that day, the class was working on a project with popsicle sticks.  The students had to write their names on the popsicle sticks so that the projects could be correctly returned.  When project time ended, the girl helped to collect the projects.  When she took the project from the boy who teased her the most, she happened to glance down at it.  And there, written in black crayon on a popsicle stick, was his name.  It was not the name that everyone called him, which was, apparently, a well-designed nickname.  It was his actual name.  And his name was Frank Edgar.

Frank Edgar is a perfectly respectable name.  But perhaps not when you are a third-grader, and you have gone to great lengths to adopt a cool nickname that everyone thinks is your real name.  Frank Edgar realized what had happened. He looked at the girl-- the same girl that he had been tormenting--with a desperate, pleading look.  Their eyes met and locked for a matter of seconds.

In that moment, the girl could feel angst, desperation, and panic coming from Frank Edgar.  The embarrassment from his teasing was still fresh in her mind. But the intensity of his pain, his potential pain, based upon what she chose to do in that moment, won out.  The girl did nothing.  She collected the project, and said nothing.

Two things happened that day. Right there in a third grade classroom, in the time that it took for the girl to lock eyes with Frank Edgar, she learned the meaning of empathy.  She learned how to put herself in someone else's shoes and to make a decision based upon someone else's feelings.  That's not always the easiest decision to make.  But it's probably always the right decision.

The second thing that happened that day is that Frank Edgar never teased that girl again.  My guess is that he learned something that day too.

Never underestimate the power of doing good.

Have a sweet week!