The Truth about Love and Snack Cakes

By CL Bledsoe — NOT ANOTHER TV DAD

I’ve got to stop getting distracted by snack cakes. It’s a real problem. What do I mean by a snack cake? Something that seems appealing but ultimately lacks nourishment. It will make you fat but never full. It doesn’t nourish the soul.

Another way of putting this is that I have a problem with falling in love with people who don’t love me back. I say “love” generically — I really mean love or like-like or something in between. These days, I’m too old to full-on fall in love without giving my insurance provider a quick call to make sure it’s in network [1].

And not just people. Things, processes, hard stuff. Snack cakes are easy as Sunday morning. Actually being a decent person, though, that takes work.

I know what you’re thinking. “You’ve got to love yourself before anyone else will.” Someone put that on the wall in a waiting room somewhere, and thought it was clever. It feeds people’s self-doubt in just the right way. It’s an unattainable goal that manages to blame you for not accomplishing it. Nicely done, platitude creator. Here’s the thing. I don’t love myself. Lots of people don’t. Really, what kind of person would? Do they just accept themselves, as is, without working to improve? That sounds like someone I don’t want to meet.