sssss

Boy, Oreo® Cookies sure are great! Sometimes, all I want at the end of a hard day is to enjoy a nice cold glass of milk with some of my favorite cookies in the world: that’s right, Oreos®! My sweet ol’ granny always said, “nothing’s better than a genuine Nabisco™ brand Oreo® Cookie when the world’s getting’ ya down”. And was she ever spot-on with that one.

Sometimes, running on only a few hours’ sleep, when the baby’s been crying for what seems like an hour straight and I have the shameful urge to yell out, “shut the fuck up!”, I rush over to the pantry and rip open a packet of scrumptious Nabisco™ brand Oreo® Cookies. Pouring some milk, I take an Oreo® cookie and let it soak up half-way. I bite into that perfect combination of flavors, sinking quickly into a sweet and creamy stupor.

Sometimes, after the end of a hard 14-hour shift when the wife is berating me about some bullshit chore that I somehow forgot and I’m a hair’s breadth away from telling her that I’m done with this marriage and I’m done with this white-picket life and that I’m going to go and take the risks that I never had the balls to take when I was young and free, I flee to the kitchen and gorge myself on those little layered delights: Oreos®! I let myself get sucked out by that cookies-n-cream riptide, all the way out: miles from shore and happily drowning in the vast expanse of flavor-ocean.

Sometimes, in the heart of the witching hour, I find myself wide awake with my thoughts running wild. I begin to obsess over all the little forks in the road which could have brought me to some other, better place. I find myself coming to the sad conclusion that my trajectory is fixed, and that this version is the version of my life that I will die trapped within. I find myself thinking back, many years ago, to the woman I loved; not my wife but the one before, the one that I let slip away. The one that I should have married. When I find myself alone with these thoughts, I sneak down to the kitchen. Tip-toeing like a thief, I crack open the fridge. From below, the light comes up and betrays me. It illuminates a tired and sunken face; the expressions painted on, only there for schlepping through the motions of life. I take out a carton of milk and pour a glass. The milk rises up, higher and higher and higher, until it begins to spill out over the edge and down the sides. The sound of it dripping off the counter and smacking into the hardwood floor brings me out of my trance, and I curse as I realize what I’ve done. I put the milk back and finish cleaning up after my spill. I can’t seem to focus on anything anymore. Anything at all. Well, that’s not true. There’s one thing I can focus on. The crunchy exterior and smooth interior of milk’s favorite cookie, Nabisco™ brand Oreos®!

Sometimes, you might suddenly realize that you’ve gone about life in all the wrong ways. Sometimes, you’re alone on a night when all you need is someone else right next to you. Sometimes, you make the same mistakes you’ve made before, and you can’t seem to figure out why you haven’t learned from them.

It’s easy to berate yourself; to beat yourself down. It’s easy to see only the flaws. Some people look at an Oreo® and see an unhealthy snack that doesn’t even really taste that great. Some people look at a middle-aged man who’s gained twenty kilograms from his glory years, who’s eyes betray the disappointment of his inner child, and see a failure. But I see a little white streak of brightness against dark surroundings. And I see a man who still has a chance to follow his heart.

When I look at an Oreo®, I see a cookie that will always be there for me. I see a snack that I’d never regret. When I look at an Oreo®, the only mistake I see is not having another.