Sweethearts

There's something very comforting about shoving Necco Sweethearts in your mouth.
Even if you're cavity prone.
Even if you're a diabetic.


One must keep in mind that they are at least a fat free, delicious, February treat. There aren't many good things about the second month, especially if you live in the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. Winter's been growing old since it started, some six weeks ago. The sun doesn't shine for more than a few hours at a time. And don't forget, it's freezing.

I think they (meaning the powers who decide the proper dates for national holiday) wanted Valentine's day to break up this awful month, give people something to look forward to, even if many lament the fourteenth with a loathing fervor reserved for politics and taxes. How can people hate one day so much? Not even atheists detest Christmas as much as ordinary people, who must love someone, be it a parent or a cat, hate Valentine's day.

Me? I don't care. Not much anyway. But there's something, about these sweethearts, that I can't avoid. These are delicious. Even if they're too hard to chew; even if they're too sweet to be healthy; even if the bag you're clinging onto has too many of them to eat in one sitting. Pure sugar to neglect whatever relationships you were going to spend the month complaining about. Why whine to friends who don't care when you can keep eating Necco wafers? None of that mindless romantic confusion and the unending selfish complaining which always escalates to pain in a few weeks. Just sugar, corn starch, gelatin, and artificial flavors, courtesy of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Regardless, I'll keep crunching them between my cavity prone teeth, and let the sugar diffuse into my diabetic arteries. And they'll all be gone by Valentine's day.