Thursday, January 7, 2021
Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.  Ephesians 4:29b

If you’ve never had a cannoli, you’ve missed one culinary delight!  They’re shell pastries, stuffed with a delicious sweet, creamy filling, laced with little fruit bits.  Sometimes, when all the stars and planets align in your favor, the bakery showcase will contain some that have the shell coated in dark chocolate.  These desert treats are legendary in the Italian-American community.  I had never experienced having a cannoli until I married into that bunch; thank you, Lord!

My late father-in-law, Tony, was a master at consuming cannolis (or any other kind of pastries).  While we were still living in Florida in 1985 Elizabeth’s mom, Sofie, passed and Tony didn’t quite know how to occupy his time, so he kept the roads hot between Port Richey and Gainesville where we lived.  He would arrive, spend a few days with us spoiling our kids, and then hit the road (sometimes just leaving us a note in the middle of the night). 

Before he came to visit, he would call us to take orders for Italian pastries from Angelina’s, bakery, the cannoli Promised Land.  One of those calls proved that Paul’s advice about saying helpful words sometimes is just out of reach for mortals.

Tony’s hearing wasn’t spectacular.  When he called it was always a shouting match to get simply basic communication going.  Whenever he called before his road trip to visit us, it was known as the Cannoli call.  One such call created a family code that has endured the passing of generations.  Here’s how it went:

Tony:  I’m comin’ up; you want anything?

Elizabeth:  Angelina’s?  Tony:  Yeah. 

Elizabeth proceeded to detail the usual box-full, including, of course, a half-dozen cannolis. 

Tony:  OK…so you want angel puffs, crescents, and the cookies, and no cannoli?

Elizabeth:  Yes to all that, but we want the cannolis too.

Tony:  You want two cannolis?  

Elizabeth:  No, I said the cannolis too!

Tony:  That’s what I said?  

Elizabeth:  The cannolis?

Tony:  Yeah, you want two? 

Elizabeth:  Not just two, there won’t be enough for everybody.

Tony:  OK, so…no cannolis?  

Elizabeth:  Yes, we want the cannolis too.

Tony:  So, we’re back to two cannolis?  

Elizabeth:  Dad…bring the cannolis.

Tony:  What?  

Elizabeth:  The cannolis…get a box, OK?

Tony:  I’m getting the box…what do you want in it? 

Elizabeth:  Cannolis…bring enough for everybody.

Tony:  You don’t want the cookies, just the cannolis? 

Elizabeth:  Dad, do you want to live in a nursing home?

I’m not certain of the connection, but several weeks later Tony moved to Las Vegas.

From that phone call to this day, when someone in our family is having a hard time understanding the communication process it is known to us as (drum roll, please):

No Cannoli

Communication is, as the saying goes, an art as much as a science.  Without good, encouraging communication our lives are impoverished and less hopeful. 

It’s easy to get sidetracked into taking short cuts, thinking others surely understand what we’re saying.  But that is the death knell for relationship.

For You Today

Paul’s advice is to err on the side of good and helpful.  That takes patience and care for those who have trouble with communication.  Anything less is, well, no cannolis!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on this text see Words That Destroy and Explicit Language