Daniele told me last night that I am going to have to stop crying every time he talks. But I can't help it.

We went last night to a little benefit they held at the pub for a local organization that helps people with eating disorders. Daniele gave a really beautiful speech about how food is love and that, in feeding others, we share love across time through generations and also across space when we think about all the people -- from the farmers on up -- who work so hard to feed us. When we eat together, when we do it with love and attention, we are part of a community and connected to the whole world. He made an analogy with a little piece of garlic that can seem so small, but when added to a dish, can have so much power to infuse everything with delight. He said it much more poetically and profoundly than I ever could, of course.

So it's not like I sobbed uncontrollably or anything, but I did get a little bit misty-eyed. This has happened on two previous occasions when he's been talking about food and love and feeding the soul and giving love to everyone.

I think the thing is that he reminds me of my dad, who also wanted to give love to the entire world. The last several years before he died, he used to volunteer once a week at the soup kitchen in my home town. He was in his late seventies and his eighties then and kind of past it as far as actual cooking was concerned. So he decided that his job would be to stand at the door when people came in and give everyone who came for lunch either a handshake or a hug (their choice). 

"No one ever touches homeless people," he said. "Because they don't get the chance to bathe or wash their clothes too often, so they're dirty and they smell bad. But every human being needs to be touched. They wither and die without it." There were people who came to the soup kitchen on his regular day as much for the hugs as for the food.

So you can see why I might get a little teary. Daniele told me to cut it out, but he also gave me his visual aid as a present.