I've been eating little Dove Bars for the past couple of weeks--the tiny ones, 50 calories each. I carefully chose the "Sea Salt Caramel & Dark Chocolate" bag because dark chocolate is good for us. It was a few years ago when I read that and I'm choosing to stay with it. If you know that related research has changed, please don't say anything. I don't want to know. I allow myself one Dove Bar per day. It's my attempt to instill a bit of discipline into my life. Much to my surprise, Dove has chosen to wax philosophical on the inside of each wrapper, coming up with such gems as "Take this moment. Enjoy it." OK. That's nice. Actually, at this moment, I am enjoying this Sea Salt Caramel & Dark Chocolate Dove bar quite a bit, but I'm wishing it was a little bigger. Maybe about the size of a Snickers.
The wrapper yesterday afternoon stated that "Too much of a good thing is wonderful." It's the kind of cutesy thing you see in gift shops, and it probably would make you smile if you enjoy cutesy things. You might even buy it. But, we need to think about this. Is "too much of a good thing" wonderful? Well, if it's money and you spend it wisely--you bet it's wonderful. Too much wine, on the other hand, is not. I only know that because of a horrible experience I had with a bottle of Grenache Rose when I was eighteen years old and visiting my sister in California. On this particular evening, she was on a date with some guy who drove a Porsche and she left me high and dry with her two irresponsible roommates who let me drink waaaaaay too much of the soda-pop-wine they had in the fridge. Actually, the only thing I remember relatively well from that evening was the supernatural way in which the bathroom spun around me as I was attacked again and again by killer bouts of nausea. I think I actually turned inside out in that bathroom.
Early last week, I opened my little Dove Bar and read, "Remind yourself to relax." Unfortunately, this pearl dropped into my lap about 15 minutes after our landscaper was here for a meeting. We've been involved in a five month landscape redo which has grown bigger and bigger until, finally, it has surpassed the cost of the first two homes we owned. Two months ago, we realized that four of our six specimen live Southern oak trees had, nearly overnight, taken the count--or some grim imitation of that. Despite record water bills, their leaves are brown, brittle and sparse. The words "shock" and "dormant" have been bandied about, but the words I really want to hear are "GUARANTEED" and "REPLACED FIRST THING IN THE MORNING." I'm still waiting. I'm not relaxed, nor do I want to be. I want action, Dove Bar. I'm really hungry for some action!
And, finally, the clincher. "Don't do, be." Whoa! I think that's deep. I checked it and that's exactly the way it's written. I kind of get it, but then again there's another side, sort of like the chicken and the egg. In the doing, aren't we demonstrating our being? And we demonstrate our being with, by, and in our doing. Right? Right? Let me know what you think.
2 comments:
I love this post! I wish I had something more poignant to add but it's too early on Monday morning to be even the slightest bit witty.
I too loved this post but am very sad to hear about your trees. You know how I feel about trees. They should most definitely be guaranteed but for now, you just keep enjoying those Dove bars. And the quotes!
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