I LOVE PASTA

A cooking class is a wonderful experience, one I highly recommend 

Deborah and I took a pasta making class this summer with Bryan and two friends

As the chef explained his technique of this wonderful way to dine

All around me people were emulating him while laughing and drinking wine

In the room was a wonderful mix of people...most I did not know

Who came together for one evening to laugh and play with dough.

I stopped a few times during the evening and did a double-take

Thinking, as people kept smiling for their cameras, “What a great commercial this would make.”

I thought if someone would only tape this night and put it on the air

It would appeal not only to Italian families but to families everywhere.

It never even occurred to me as we made pasta on that day

If anyone cooking and laughing in that room happened to be gay.

But if Guido Barilla had been filming as we made pasta on that day

He would have asked each gay person to raise their hand then kindly step away

“Not for lack of respect,” he’d say, no he wouldn’t want to condemn

“But ours is a classic family, and we don’t agree with them.”

Of course Barilla has apologized after the firestorm that ensued

Saying his message needed to be clarified, his words were misconstrued.

I’m sure in his mind Mr. Barilla did not mean to degrade or to enflame

He just didn’t realize today (or ever) no two families are the same

What Mr. Barilla and those who think like him unfortunately fail to see

Is that the wonder of the family, like pasta, lies in its variety

To me the main ingredient of family, to which Mr. Barilla seems unaware

Is not one person in particular but in the love we share.

What makes a family taste so good what makes it something we want to savor...

Is how each one, spiced uniquely, has it’s own distinctive flavor

I loved Barilla pasta their commercials emphasizing family were benign

Now I’m sad to learn their definition does not agree with mine.

And since from his commercials a group of humans he has banned

I’ll take up his suggestion and I’ll buy another brand.