BLT in a Bowl

I planted only 3 tomato plants because my sweetie is allergic to tomatoes. Nevertheless, i now have a lot of tomatoes to eat. Some days, i eat fresh tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

One of my favorite ways to eat tomatoes is a BLT sandwich, but who has time to fry bacon? So i buy bacon bits--fake bacon bits from the co-op or real bacon bits from the supermarket. I try to avoid gluten, so i now eat a BLT bowl. And truth be told, i don't have lettuce, so it's just diced tomatoes, bacon bits, and a dollop of mayonnaise.

Oh, how that recipe for BLT has changed over the years. I grew up with Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip. I used to eat mayonnaise (Miracle Whip) sandwiches after school.

In my 20s i converted to whole wheat bread, and in my 30s to "real" mayonnaise, Hellman's or Best on the West Coast. In my 60s, i started drifting away from bread.

I still call it BLT even though it barely resembles its former self. And come to think of it, i still call me "I," even though i barely resemble my former self.

Is a BLT in a bowl still a BLT?

Am I still I?

Tomato Sandwich

Ripe tomatoes. Tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes. Juicy red, red tomatoes.

The tomato harvest is coming in, so every day, i have a tomato sandwich for breakfast, and maybe one for lunch as well. One slice of toasted multi-grain bread, Hellman's mayonnaise (which i still love), sliced tomatoes that are salted and peppered. The bread is just a conveyor of the tomato to my mouth. The bread is just an excuse to eat tomatoes. How many tomatoes can i pile on one piece of toast? How much summer can i eat?

What do we want to consume for the harvest of our lives?

A friend who is politically right of center is infuriated by Democratic women politicians. He hates them all. Do we think we can hate free-of-charge? Do we think we can hate some people, and, when it comes time to meet our maker, that He'll understand and let us off scot-free? Do we think we can hate some people and only love the people we want to love? If we hate our enemies, how are we any different than them, really?

If we sow hatred now, we will reap hatred--now or later. Contemplate this now. Before it's too late.

It's a tall order, but it's up to us to love the people who hate, especially our good friends and relatives, with whom we may disagree on some subjects, like religion or politics.

We want to harvest those big juicy tomatoes, not throw them in the face of someone we disagree with.