Salum has managed a local gourmet ice cream shop ever since he moved to America from Mozambique nine years ago. He lives above the ice cream store and has worked nonstop 365 days a year for the past 9 years. At 7am he reports to duty making the ice cream from scratch, at 4:30 in the afternoon he takes his two-hour break (during which time he goes for a ten-mile run so as “not to become lazy and waste time watching TV”), and then he returns to work for the night shift. He saved enough money during the past 9 years to finally return home to Mozambique and retire.

Recently he invited me back to the kitchen where he concocts the elegantly novel ice cream flavors like “Burnt Sugar,” “Khulfi,” and “Mexican Chocolate.” He gave me a taste of the fresh mint for his newest summer recipe. Near the giant silver mixers and cartons of candies he had tacked a calendar to the wall where he marks the number of days until he gets to fly home to a life of sunshine, relaxing, running, swimming, and hopefully marrying the woman of his dreams.

His story makes me feel ashamed of my own laziness. Maybe I should be working furiously and saving up so that in 9 years I can start living the dream . But I think that living the dream is more of a perennial way of life than a climax to a story.

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