Egg Cracklets

I've always loved hard breads and biscuits, really crispy toast, and bread sticks, too, but I am really partial to my favorite, egg cracklets.

During college, when my classes were spread out within an entire day, I always (well, almost always) brought along a quite large bag of egg cracklets for lunch. They went so well with ice cream, or with plain cold water when my weekly allowance was dwindling.

Today, I just ogle at bags of egg cracklets stacked neatly on store shelves. I have not bought any for quite some time now, the reason being either of these two, or both: That I have a misplaced sense of frugality, just a tad short of miserliness. If I wanted to, I can forever forgo acquiring things that will benefit only myself, but will gladly spend the greater portion of my finances for things to be enjoyed by the majority of my family. I look upon such a deed as obligatory, rather than unequivocal selflessness. From birth, each one is given a roster of obligations to fulfill, and should we balk at doing them, or treat them with disregard or avoidance, we would become very unhappy; OR, I am an overly optimistic individual, the kindred spirit of those who seek justice, ever hopeful that it is obtainable; and of the perpetrators of crimes, forever seeking avenues of escape and the delay of sought redress; as well as the faceless many whose lives and dreams are regularly decimated by both natural and man-made tragedies that visit this land, but who rebuild each time and move on.

In this country, the hope for change is a national obsession. It accounts for the popularity of a home-grown tv soap about an orphan boy possessed of the divine gift of healing and miracles. At the rate the boy heals people of their morbid illnesses, gunshot and stab wounds, fractures, paralysis, even bringing back people from the dead, he could well surpass and better the record of Jesus Christ. Which is why I think the show is blasphemous to a certain extent, promoting misguided values and fallacious expectations. Healing and change do not happen at the instant of an orphan boy's touch, or overnight. They are brought about by serious work and commitment over decades, at times even lifetimes.

We are dead certain (no pun intended) that better days are in the offing, and that it is written in Fate's pages that they will come. And so it is with me that I await buying my delicious egg cracklets again, promising myself a special treat, a reward, on the arrival of better fortunes.