The Plight of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

                                                             

 

The Plight of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

 

                                                                                      

We've all been there, whether it be a holiday party, family gathering, work function, etc......and we see that tray of homemade cookies. And the king of all cookies, the Chocolate Chip cookie, is sitting right there. For some reason it's off to the side of the tray, rather than being prominently displayed in the center of the platter where it belongs. You find that odd, but you grab it anyways. As you take that first bite, rather than chocolatey chip goodness, you are met with a mouthful of oats and raisins. You immediately curse the cookie and all of it's kind. This is the uphill battle that the Oatmeal Raisin cookie has to face on a daily basis. Despite the fact that the oatmeal raisin cookie is a wonderful shot of brown sugar goodness, it has unjustly been labeled as the ugly step sibling of the chocolate chip cookie. All of this, simply becuase it has a similar appearance.

A few months ago my wife and I were eating homemade cookies and I brought up the fact that my favorite cookie (oatmeal raisin) is one of the most hated and misunderstood cookies available for consumption. She disagreed and swore that most folks loved it. For confirmation of my statement, I immediately turned to a message board community that I will not mention the name of here because the folks there can get pretty vulgar and I'd rather not be judged for visiting it on an hourly basis. I created a discussion and poll on the message board and asked for opinions on the oatmeal raisin cookie. To go along with a landlside of hate against the oatmeal raisin cookie in the poll, were such replies as, "F*** oatmeal raisin cookies for disguising themselves as chocolate chip cookies" and, "F*** oatmeal raisin cookies, and f*** you for liking them." I showed these responses and the poll to my wife, and she had no choice but to surrender her argument.
So I ask, is it fair to judge the oatmeal raisin cookie on the merits of an entirely different cookie? Is the oatmeal cookie to blame because it looks similar to a more popular cookie while having a vastly different taste? Did you know that the oatmeal raisin cookie was invented over 40 years BEFORE the chocolate chip cookie? If anything, the chocolate chip cookie is the imposter!

I'm not here to choose sides though. I just want each cookie judged on its own merit. I understand people's taste buds are different. I have a sister in California who prefers the orange and yellow Starburst over the red and pinks, so I know that weirdos exist.

The point of this blog post is not to change your mind about your favorite cookie. Favor any cookie you want, for any reason you want. In high school, I had a girlfriend bake me a batch sugar cookies that she under baked by a longshot, and to this day I love an undercooked cookie. All I'm asking is this, give the oatmeal raisin cookie a fair shake. Judge it on it's own, without comparison to other cookies. Next time you're in a bakery, or see a platter of homemade cookies, give the oatmeal raisin cookie a try with no preconceived notions. You might just thank me.

In a child's eyes

Last night with my 2 year old son, I had one of those experiences that left me wondering about the different roles parents play to their children. One of those moments that makes you reflect back to your own childhood.

I remember as a child, viewing my parents as a well established system. They were the law, they were the providers, and as far as I knew, they lived solely to raise me and my siblings. I never stopped to think that they were once in my shoes. It never crossed my mind that at some point before I existed, they required the very structure that they provided me. They never mentioned a course or symposium they were required to attend prior to entering parenthood, and yet they were doing a fine enough job that I never questioned their credentials. Well, as a teenager I became quite a bit more curious about seeing some sort of diploma from Parenting 101, but that’s a different blog for a different day. Their system was so well oiled, that it almost seemed as if they had a pamphlet describing how to handle any situation imaginable.

Moving forward to the present, I don’t consider myself to be any type of authority figure. Sometimes I don’t really think it’s even sunk into my system that I am a parent. I’m too young at heart. I make silly faces when no one is looking. I have a minor fear of the dark. I even watch cartoons with no kids around. There are times I say something authoritative to my kid, and walk away thinking there is no way he’s buying that. He has to see that I’m a fraud.

I realized last night though, that to my son, I am what I saw in my parents. I am the law, I am the provider, I am the security blanket. He awoke from what I assumed to be a nightmare at 4:00am, screaming, and wanted nothing but his daddy. Anyone who has seen my son around bed time knows that he 99 times out of 100, he wants only his mommy. Buzz Lightyear could walk through the door at bedtime, and my son would tell him to get lost. But last night, he wanted me. He wanted to lay down on the living room floor, cuddle up to my chest, wrap my arm around him, and grip my pointer finger in the same way he does when we’re walking and he’s holding my hand. Except this time, he was gripping it super hard. As if he believed that as long as he was holding my finger, he was safe from the nightmare.

It makes me wonder just who the heck he thinks I am. How am I qualified to provide that security to him, when I sometimes get the chills walking to the end of the road to grab the trashcans after dark(cut me some slack, our driveway is about a quarter mile long and super dark!).

The whole situation leaves me wanting to be better. I feel as though I want to be sure I am deserving of the role I’ve assumed to him. It also makes me wonder if my dad was afraid of the dark?