Cookie Monster by Google

I love how Google changes their logo online all the time to celebrate or acknowledge milestones in our culture. It shows a vibrant, flexible and (dare I say) fun group of people are behind the powerful search engine.

Today, as I went to search for something online I was greeted by this wonderful image of the Cookie Monster.  I grew up with Sesame Street.  Cookie Monster, Grover and Big Bird were good friends of mine.

This fabulous image of the insatiable, hairy blue monster that lives and breathes for cookies (not unlike myself, I must admit) immediately brought a wide and genuine smile to my face. And not just because he’s really cute and cuddly and we share a common cookie-bond.  Flashing somewhere in my brain was peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, sleeping bags on the living room floor and my own first furry creature – my childhood dog, Ari. (The airedale – only she was black and brown, not blue.)

It felt like coming home.

Sesame Street, for me, equals peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and all that is good and sweet and pure.  And, I suspect, it equals those things for millions and millions of others.  How do I know?  Thanks to Google, I know now that this is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street.  And after 40 years of broadcasting, Sesame Street has won 122 Emmys and been aired in over 140 countries. 

Wow. That’s a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwich memories.  And a whole heap of joy.

One of the great joys of summer is a gathering of friends and family for a late afternoon soiree.  I had the pleasure of indulging myself at just such a gathering this past weekend. We spent the entire time outside – on the deck, in the hammocks, soaking in the late summer sun. I spied joy in young children, puppy dogs and dear friends, and quiet a bit of it in myself.