Cyber Redemption

I hate Facebook. This may sound very hypocritical coming from someone who has a facebook page but it's true. I have one because it is the only way these days to keep up with certain family members and friends. People who don't have time to return calls or emails but seem to have tremendous amounts of time to spend on facebook and the Internet recording every insignificant stupid thought that comes into their head and every single thing they do during the day as if this were so fascinating and earth shattering. Many a time I have been tempted to write "I've farted", "Oops again" just to see what reaction I would get from my minions of 23 friends. I'm sure none, it has nothing to do with them and is not about them. The internet, and Facebook especially, has bred a culture of Snookis, self centered, self involved people who think everything they think, say, eat, do; needs to be shared with the masses to show how interesting their lives are, meanwhile alienating everyone since they never bother with anyone but themselves. Then last week something very interesting happened. While catching up on the blogs that I read I took a look at Last Night's Dinner; which I hadn't looked at for a while mainly because the author is 9 months pregnant and has, understandably, been absent; and found this post:
A Pie for Mikey, written by her husband. Apparently, another food blogger they knew, Jennifer Perillo, had lost her husband suddenly a few days before and wrote this post: for mikey. I had never read her blog before but of course was curious once I read Last Night's Dinner's post. It was heartbreaking. Her prose is beautiful in the way she explains her monumental loss, and her daughters' devastation and her sweet request that to honor her husband one should bake his favorite dessert, peanut butter pie. I lost my father

the same sudden way when I was 16 and have thought of it pretty much every day since. I remember my mother's anguish, even though she tried not to show it. These girls are much younger than I, they will miss so much more. I sympathize with her because I can't even imagine losing someone I have loved for as long as I can remember

and can't possibly imagine being without. But most poignant was two days later when I went on to one of my recipe websites Tastespotting looking for help with a zucchini abundance; the first page was full of posts for peanut butter pies for Mikey, so was the second; it was overwhelming...and amazing. These people weren't necessarily her friends or relatives, they were just people, people from everywhere, who had read her post and felt her pain and did honor her and her husband's life by heeding her request. I'm sure this will not fill her void but it will make her loss just a tad more bearable to know that there are those out there who will reach out to someones need because it's not all about them.

I will not bake a peanut butter pie for Mikey, at least not today (my hips can't handle it) but I will follow the rest of her request:

 hug them like there's no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on.