Measuring Joy

(c) pauchi

(with gratitude to Camay Murphy)

My grandmother put a little sugar in everything she cooked.
A teaspoon here, a pinch there, a whole cup in her apple pie.

And we ate everything.
And loved it.

I grew up to believe that all food was delicious,
that mealtime was never to be missed,

and because I knew that everything
my grandmother cooked was graced with love,

no matter what happened during the day,
dinner healed with its sweetness.

Every night I went to bed
with that taste in my mouth

and every morning I met the school bus,
smiling.

Michael S. Glaser

Michael S. Glaser lives in St. Mary's City, Md.

1 thought on “Measuring Joy

  1. Beautiful, gentle poem of fond memories.
    I was born in San Francisco in 1939, grew up there in the 1940s and 1950s, and have similar fond memories.
    Unfortunately, we now know that added sugar has led to and is continuing to lead to huge public health care issues of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. The addition of ‘high-fructose corn syrup’ to almost all American food is a killer.
    We have no nutritional need for added sugars or carcinogenic sweeteners. None. They are, in effect poison leading to huge medical costs and declining life expectancy in the United States.
    The major giants of multinational agro-business have made more inexpensive food available to more people than ever before, but the downside is that food is unnaturally sweetened to increase sales.
    As Quakers, we have a responsibility under Stewardship/Sustainability to raise awareness of what this is doing now and for future generations. So many of our friends in Europe have commented after visiting the States for the first time how fat Americans seem to be. I lost my last brother last year to diabetes and there is no history of diabetes in the family. He was eating candy and taking insulin medicine to the very end six months after he had to have one leg amputated due to diabetes-caused gangrene. Under America’s great constitutional freedom of speech, marketers of sweets have no legal requirement to educate the public on that risk. But, Quakers can be one of those who do. I am a member of QAAD, Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs. Added sugar is addictive and killed my brother.

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