Time Out for Strawberry Salad

I am taking a brief time-out from explaining/documenting spiritual abuse in other churches to talk about….strawberry salad.

The other night at my Christian recovery group, I was asked to put together the salad.  All the fixings lay in front of me and I hesitated.  I dumped the spinach into the bowl along with a bag of seeds and cranberries.  As I started slicing strawberries into the salad, I paused.

I turned to my friend and said, "You know, men don't like strawberries in their salad.  I'm not sure the guys will eat this."

She looked at my quizzically and said, "The guys at it down to the bottom last week.  They loved it!"

I laughed and explained the following to her:

When I was in charge of making Newcomer 101 lunches at Milestone, I wanted it to be nice and something a little better than "down-homey."  I often chose to serve chicken salad on croissants and a spinach/strawberry salad to go along with it.  And, of course, we had seven layer bars for dessert because those were Pastor's favorites and we always wanted to honor him.  I was always happy to serve during this time and was equally happy to be in charge of organizing the women in the kitchen.  (This was something I learned about myself at Milestone that I am forever grateful for: how to do hospitality and the fact that I am really good at it!)  

I remember one Sunday, I believe it was after I'd been out a month or so after having my son, I showed up to this meal to see, instead of a lunch like the one that I'd been used to preparing, a barbecue smoker and brisket being served.

The comment was made to me something along the lines of, "Men don't like girly lunches.  They want substance.  They want meat."

I was hurt that what I had worked so hard at hadn't been good enough and that no one even bothered to tell me.  And, then, of course, there's the fact that MEN EAT STRAWBERRY SALAD (as long as they're not part of a hyper-masculine organization I guess).