The Man Crying Over Ice Cream

“Look at that grown man crying over ice cream!” and “look what people choose to be sad about” were two of the comments from the people walking past the man sitting on the ground, crying next to the ice cream he had dropped. You’d probably think something similar too if you were there. After all, we all have a certain amount of daily problems we have to put up with in life, and seeing someone break down over something that seems simpler than our own struggles can irritate us.

I mean, how much can you love an ice cream to get upset over dropping it? Worst case, you can just go and buy another one, right?

Of course, that is only what we see. None of us knows the story behind those tears. For example, what if you learned that the man actually hates ice cream? How would you think then? Probably even worse, because crying over losing something you do not even like seems more absurd than crying over something you love. So why is the man crying? What is the thing about that ice cream that we do not know?

Let’s think. Maybe the ice cream reminds him of someone, maybe of a person who took him out for ice cream on one of their first dates. Maybe he even confessed, “I’ll tell you something, but you’ll think I’m a monster, because I actually hate ice cream,” because let’s agree on one thing, ice cream is one of the most universally loved things, isn’t it? Who really hates ice cream?

But instead of the judgmental reaction he expected, the kind you or I would probably have given, he got an understanding response like, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I brought you here without even asking.” Then our crybaby friend explained that he was afraid the other person would think badly of him if he admitted it earlier, and also that maybe if he tried it again, this time he might learn to like it. His partner, in turn, reaffirmed their great love for ice cream and joked that if they had known this fact earlier, they wouldn’t have even gone on a date.

Sounds almost like a sweet little story, doesn’t it? What happened between them afterwards or what kind of relationship they had is not our concern, because that is not why we are here. We are here to understand why our weepy friend sitting by the side of the road is crying, so we should think only about what relates to that.

And if the ice cream truly is a symbol of his story with someone, then it must be important enough to make him cry in the middle of the street. I think you would agree with that. If so, then if we approached him and asked about that person, he would likely tell us how important they were to him, how they were one of the few things that made him feel love for life and for living, and so on. After all, from someone who openly says he hates even something as simple and beloved as ice cream, we can more or less guess that his life didn’t have many colorful, love-filled things in it.

Alright, we understand this much. The ice cream is tied to someone he truly loved, which maybe gives his emotions some reason, but still does not fully explain all this sadness caused by simply dropping an ice cream. So let’s try to dig a little deeper. Let’s try to figure out what happened to this person he cannot praise enough. Maybe they are very far from each other now. Maybe they lost contact completely. But no, I think we need something deeper.

Maybe one day, while everything was going fine, a very serious health problem suddenly appeared. We don’t know what it was, but we know it had no solution, and that it slowly turned into a ticking clock for one of them.

Do not be fooled by our weepy friend’s current state. Back then, he never showed any strong emotions, so that his partner, who knew they were dying, could feel stronger and better. And honestly, he wasn’t someone who could express his feelings very well in the first place, surprising as that may seem to us now. But surely, the partner could see the feelings he kept inside, even if they couldn’t see his hatred of ice cream on their first date. Over time, they had come to know each other far better.

We do not need the details of the illness or the process of dying. We can more or less guess what happened, right? Even in the last stretch of his partner’s life, when they still would not stop filling those moments with their great love for ice cream, he probably met it with remarks like, “I still don’t understand what you love about this so much.”

Even when that powerless body, clearly living its last days, joked, “You complain too much, but after I’m gone, you’ll have to eat ice cream for me too, don’t forget,” he just brushed it off with a laugh full of pain. Seeing that crooked, pained smile, the partner probably responded, “Alright, alright, I’m joking. I couldn’t put you through that torture. You’re already suffering enough because of me.” And even if he didn’t like hearing those words, it isn’t hard to guess that they comforted him at least a little.

Of course, all of this happened years ago. Our friend has slowly managed to get through this grief that lasted for years. That was probably not easy at all. Most likely, he felt he had returned to his own colorless, dull and sorrowful world, and at first he may not have even believed it was possible to live with the emptiness left by the person he lost.

But somehow he managed, and he was able to stand on his feet again. Of course, not everything was going great, but he could say, “this is part of life too,” and carry on with the rest of his days.

Maybe today was just one of those days. At the end of a long and exhausting workday, our friend was quietly walking home when he realized he was passing, right at the spot where we are now standing, the same ice cream shop he had come to with that person years ago. He checked the date and thought that their birthday was not far away. Since he was already passing by, he decided to put aside all his hatred of ice cream as a birthday gift to them, and to eat their favorite flavor once more, the same ice cream they ate in their early days.

The weather was very hot and he was very tired, so everything seemed perfect for an ice cream. Maybe this small gesture would even lift his own mood. The plan was flawless and there seemed to be no obstacle to it.

And of course, as you have already guessed, all those feelings lasted only until the moment the ice cream he had bought so eagerly slipped out of his hand before he even tasted it.

And finally, we have reached that moment, the moment where the answers to all our questions come together. Our friend had not even tasted the ice cream he bought so eagerly when, in a moment of carelessness, he misjudged his movements, and it all ended with the ice cream on the ground.

What he watched slip from his hand and fall was not just an ice cream. Maybe he saw everything he had been holding onto to keep going in life slip away from him, one by one.

Suddenly, all the realities of life he had been running and hiding from for years hit him like a hard slap across the face. The already frail threads that tied him to life snapped all at once, and he could find no strength left in his knees to keep him standing. All that remained now was the melted ice cream running across the asphalt like the colors draining out of his life, and the real tears he was meeting again for the first time in many years.

Now he hated ice cream more than he ever had, many times more than before. It was almost as if he blamed the ice cream for everything that had happened to him. Maybe he was now catching up with those tears he hadn’t seen for so long, like old friends, and didn’t want to let them go because he feared he would never see them again. And that is what created the scene we have been talking about: a man crying over his ice cream.

Of course, all of this is just a theory. I have no idea who that man really is. To me, just like to you, he is simply a man crying over his ice cream. Maybe he really cried only because he dropped it. Maybe he cried because he didn’t have the money to buy a new one.

Maybe it was because of the story we told, or some other story like it. We will never know. In the end, it is not our story, so it is not our place to tell it. We will simply walk past him and carry on our way, saying, “Look at that grown man crying over ice cream!”