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Editorial: Food for thought By Steve Lansingh | As I write this, I'm sticking a pear up to my nose. I'm trying to describe what the pear smells like, other than "pear." So far I haven't come up with much, other than "sweet" and "refreshing." There's a good reason for my bizarre behavior, mind you -- call it Method writing. I'm discovering the implications of that scene in City of Angels when Nicolas Cage asks Meg Ryan to describe the pear she is eating. "I don't know what a pear tastes like to you," he insists. There's nuance and power in that simple sentence. I never thought about it before, but a pear tastes different to each person. We don't usually get beyond "I like pears" or "I don't like pears" in conversation, because, I've found out firsthand, it is difficult to explain ourselves more clearly than that. It is only with our favorite foods, maybe, that we take the time and effort to tell a friend how exquisite the taste is to us, and how it makes us feel to eat it. In fact, exchanges like that might be why we're such good friends with those close to us. Our entire relationship is woven from our conversations in which we talk about the experiences of our lives, or, if you will, how life tastes to us. The reason we crave relationship with others is because we want to know and understand how someone else experiences the world; it opens our minds and our hearts to know that the world tastes different to people. The power of that statement, then, is reminding us what lies at the core of relationship. Too often we talk and talk about our own experiences rather than asking questions about those around us; we figure they will interject when they have something to say. But sometimes the richest exchanges take place when we ask questions and push ourselves to examine topics that we might not normally think about. We have to sit down and formulate an answer. What do I think about homosexuality? Why do Shawn Colvin's songs make me pay attention? How does a pear taste? "I don't know what a pear tastes like to you" -- that sentence could practically replace the mission statement of this magazine. Our goal is to create richer relationships for our readers by paying attention to the matters of the heart. To ask that question of someone every day -- What does your life taste like? -- is perhaps the best way to stay attuned to the heart. Art helps us in that quest because it is essentially a way to express those unintelligible groanings of the heart. The better we get to know an art form and decipher the messages within, the more it will speak to us. Interacting with film is a way of asking people all over the world what life tastes like, not just those people immediately around us, who are often much like us. When you approach film, listen for the artists' experience of the pear. When you approach your friends, ask them how the pear tastes. When you approach God, thank him for making the pear and for being present in it. I think I can now describe how the pear tastes. It tastes ... alive.