Top Dressed

I happen to like Ice Cream. I got some last night and had a bowlful, then I wanted to have some for breakfast. Diane thought that since we had just gone for a run, that it wouldn't be the best breakfast. I thought that since we had gone for a run, I deserved some ice cream. Besides, I am on vacation...in Hawaii.

I had some multigrain cheerios instead.

When I was younger, we used to get ice cream that had a little window at the top that showed what was inside the carton. If it was chocolate chip, it had oodles of chocolate chips right there in the window. If it was butter pecan, you could see all these little butter pecan things, so many they almost wanted to climb right on out. If it was cherry, cherries, if it was strawberry, oodles of strawberries.

Once you opened the carton, it was a different story. Sure, you still had chocolate chips, but they were nowhere near the concentration that the window on top led you to believe. You see, if you read the small print, it said "Top Dressed". Top Dressed meant that all the good stuff was put up front where you can see it.

It can kind of irritate you, but we do the same sort of thing. When we enter relationships, sell stuff, talk about future plans or whatever, we put all the best stuff in the viewing window and forget to point out that we are "top dressed". Sure, some of this good stuff really is here, but mostly it is just plain old vanilla ice cream.

Maybe it would be better if we let people know our shortcomings up front, rather than just showing the dressed up window.

Besides, I like ice cream. Even the plain old vanilla.