Raisinets, Pinot Noir, and Life and Death

It’s been a strange day.  I was doing some writing this morning for an upcoming Writing Project grant deadline, so I put off this writing to the end of the day.  I must confess that it is now the end of the day, and I have had a glass of pinot noir during dinner with my friend Vanessa. And as I write this I am eating Raisinets which I don’t really love; I prefer non-pareils but that’s all that my husband has stocked in the chocolate collection cabinet.  That is, besides Snickers, Almond Joys, and a few random peanut Hershey’s miniatures that I like even less. I never buy anything chocolate for the house.  I am always watching my weight, but occasionally I go off the deep end and will eat whatever I find.  I am usually disappointed with the choices and quality of the chocolate I do discover in the cabinet, but I know I can’t buy my favorites on my own because I’ll eat them. No Kit Kats or malted milk balls can I purchase.   

So I’m nearly done with this box of Raisinets – 3.5 ounces, and now I have to decide if I should finish the box or throw out the rest, but I know I can’t return the box to the cabinet: it would surely signal to my husband that I ate almost the whole box.  Better hope that he forgets that he ever had a box of Raisinets in there.

I didn’t really plan on writing about Raisinets.  Today while I was grant writing, I got a text that a former colleague at the middle school had passed away.  She had pancreatic cancer. A few of us proceeded to text back and forth.  Then I thought about the Alex Trebek video I watched on Twitter this morning where he told the world he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer but was going to try and beat it.  It all served to put me in a somber, pensive mood. 

But then two hours later, my dear friend Mindy texts: “She’s here!”  Her granddaughter was born at 1 PM today!  8 lbs, 12 ounces, 21 inches.  Wow! What a miracle! 

A life beginning, and a life ending. And that is March 7.