Thursday, February 24, 2011

My Retirement - Forest Gump

The snow is melting and I'm doing OK.

Life is like a box of chocolates and it is all about what you choose.

I love chocolates and they don't have to be a premium brand; M & Ms will do just fine.  They are easy to pick up, you always take more than one at a time and they can be put in the mouth as a group and are consumed quickly. There is little evidence that you ever indulged.  Nobody will know you broke your diet (except if you kept them in your hands too long and the tell-tale colors are on your fingers). My philosophy is that if nobody saw you eat them, there were no calories consumed. 

Most gift boxes of chocolates contain at least one or two candies wrapped up in a foil.  They look so special and your eyes go to them first.  It is a mystery candy which makes it desirable.  I have found that more times than not when I bite into one of these, it is the plainest chocolate in the box; it is just gussied up to get your attention but has no substance.  Then there are the creams - some vanilla, some fruit flavored and some chocolate.  Good, but kind of what you would expect; it is usually a safe choice but somewhat boring.  Caramels are chewy and take a while to consume.  These you will remember for at least a few minutes after eating them as they tend to stick to your teeth.  You like that they stay around, but they can give you cavities. Cherries are sweet and there is usually only one in a box, so you are lucky if you get first pick.

Now to my favorite, nuts.  I do like those chocolate covered peanuts. There is nothing complicated about them, you know what you are getting all the time and it is a great combination.  Another are Hazelnuts, they stand out with their size and it is hard to resist, but when you bite into them you take the chance of breaking a molar. My first choice though is the chocolate with the tiny pieces of nuts.  The texture is just right, you get to chew without the fear of breaking a tooth and you get an equal amount of both composition and flavor. Perfect! They do tend to get stuck in between your teeth and gums but all the better as you get to indulge in them for awhile.

Then, of course, in every life there are some jelly chocolates.  It is about disappointment and how you deal with it.  You can dwell on it or you can use it to learn and move on. I'd like to think that I have gained the most from the jellies. They have made me stronger, smarter and more resilient.  All in all though, I would rather have more M&M days with a Twix bar thrown in.





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1 comment:

  1. I always say that life is like a bag of potatoe chips...you know, big ones, little ones, burnt ones, broken ones, green ones and that great chip dust at the bottom of the bag that you really have to dig for; not to mention all those great flavours. You need them all to make a complete bag.
    I loved Forest Gump....such a sweetheart and I loved his chocolate box analogy.

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