Triple Berry Jam


I love that I live in a world that has marmalade.

I'm not particularly a fan of it myself. I generally don't turn to jams and jellys but in the rare times I do, I usually enjoy a berry variety. Triple berry is my favorite.

And yet, while I don't like eating marmalade, it occupies a place in my heart that's more special than any triple berry jam could ever.

I like marmalade not because I like it, but because other people do. This odd fact leads me to thinking a lot about marmalade. I probably think more about marmalade than the people who like it.

Marmalade is so decidedly different from all the other jams that, I honestly don't even know if it qualifies as a "jam." It's not called orange jam, it's not orange jelly.

Marmalade is so confident, so self-assured, that it offers know hint at all about what it is. Those who know, know and, it seems, most people actually happen to know.

I don't just think about its name. I think about how it's consumed. The people who buy it, the people who stock it in their pantry, the people who scrape the bottom of the jar with disappointment and dejectedly utter: "we're out of marmalade."

It's not an experience I've had with marmalade, but I can empathize. I've experienced similar situations but, in my case, it was with mustard...named after the seed from which it comes. It's consumed far more than marmalade, but lacks that marmaladian confidence to go by any other name.

I like to think about when marmalade is being consumed. Maybe it's raining, maybe there's a cup of Earl Gray tea still steaming, maybe there's some tasteful mixture of tartan, tweed and herringbone strewn about. And then there's toast - well toasted toast. Toast so golden brown that the marmalade rests rather invisibly atop the toast. Maybe it's a dad, maybe it's a mom. Maybe they're about to head out to work unknowing that their perception of the days proceedings balance precariously by the precision of the marmalade. And maybe there's some magic in the fact that, marmalade...humble, confident marmalade, is the reason that today will be seen as a good day, regardless of what comes.

It's defiantly optimistic and unrelentingly happy. If the mere idea of marmalade can offer so much promise and comfort to someone who doesn't care much for it, it's magic is far from far fetched.

In a world filled with grape, apricot, peach, berry, double berry, and triple berry jams, be marmalade.

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