“Now put your clothes back on, and I'll buy you an ice cream.”

I’m a rainbow sherbet kind of guy. Almost without fail, I go to Baskin-Robbins with hopes of a new surprise, a new flavor to tantalize my mouth. I enter filled with ambition and ideas for the future of my ice cream frenzy. I enter with all of that and I exit with rainbow sherbet. Why do I come back to rainbow sherbet? Because it’s my favorite; the flavor I like the most. I could try other flavors and every so often I do. But I rarely find anything to compare to the elation I feel for rainbow sherbet. Actually, when X-men 2 came out in theaters, Baskin Robbins held a promotion where they gave away free cones of the cross-promotional tie-in flavors of Xtreme Blue Rasberry Blast and Mutant Mint Shockwave or something catchy and fresh like that. I tried the blue raspberry and I liked it and for the better part of that summer, that was my flavor of choice. It was my favorite. But somehow I was back to rainbow sherbet, I guess it just fulfilled my needs. I have one favorite at a time, and that’s what I prefer.

“Come, ice cream. Come to my mouth. How dare you disobey me!…What are you looking at? Damn you all... and such.”

My brother Todd is different. He can have a different flavor each time he walks into Baskin-Robbins and enjoy it just as much as any other flavor. I use Todd as an example because several of his high school buddies worked at Baskin-Robbins and so on any given trip to the Mall, one was usually on duty and would give us free scoops. So naturally a bulk of my Baskin-Robbins experience includes Todd. Todd could go in and get mint chocolate chip one time, rocky road the next, and then turn around and get bubble gum. It boggles my mind how someone can like so many different flavors. Sure I like chocolate peanut butter, Mutant Blue Sherbet Bonanza, and even bubble gum. But not as totally as I like rainbow sherbet. Todd can see the good in each of the different flavors. Things he enjoys about this one or that one. I can only see the total sum of all its qualities. I can have only one favorite.

“There can be only one!”

Maybe it’s a problem of perception. I see things singularly, while others see them plurally. If I preferred a different flavor, then the former, by very definition is NOT my favorite. I have but one “favorite” flavor at a time, all the other 30 flavors are merely secondary to that flavor. I could try to enjoy other flavors, thinking that maybe they could be my favorite. But really all I would be doing is trying to pretend that I was not totally devoted to rainbow sherbet.

“Benjamin is nobody's friend. If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he'd be pralines and dick.”

This is an analogy, I guess, to…dating. Some people can date prolifically. Like this about one person and that about another person. Other people, only date one person at a time. Again a difference between singular and plural perspectives, holistic versus separatistic. Additionally each group finds it difficult to understand the other. Difficult to understand how someone could date one person for 6 months or why someone feels the need to go out with a different girl each night of the week. Neither side is really right or wrong, its just the way things are. I only relate this because I always seem to pick the flavors that either are no longer available or just plain sold out. And I think maybe “Strawberry Cheescake Chunk” will be my new favorite, it’s time for a new favorite, because obviously this flavor is not an option. But just because a flavor isn’t available, doesn’t make it ‘not’ your favorite. You’ve got to find a new flavor that beats the old one, not just one to replace it. And sadly its something you rarely have control over…it just happens. I’m still trying to find a flavor that is actually available at a Baskin-Robbins near me. Cause while I do love ice cream and girls…there really can be only one.

“We can never see past the choices we don't understand.”

…though sometimes it seems more like “There can be only none.”