The Right Book At The Right Time

I just finished Frank Bruni's book, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full Time Eater. I recommend it if you have the slightest appreciation for food or family. Not to spoil it, but the "born round" part does not refer to one's midsection. It's something his Grandma used to say, "born round, you don't die square". I'm sure she's not the originator of the phrase, but I love it too much to argue about the source.

I wanted to share one of my favorite passages about the loss of his grandmother, which I arrived at on the second anniversary of my own grandmother's passing. I don't care how corny it sounds, sometimes we find the things we need when we need them the most. Here it is with much love to Grandma Bruni and Grandma C.

"Back at Carolina I’d taken a psychology class with a  professor whose mantra, only tangentially connected to what we were studying, was that life was ultimately about adjusting to loss, about letting go. He meant life after a certain point in time-after a certain age-and I wondered, with Grandma's death, if I was already there. Yes, new people would come along, but none who might loom anywhere near as large on the landscape of my life, of my whole identity, as she had. With luck a few of these people would love me, but none with the fierceness and pride that she had."

The book also resonated with me since I too, have a tendency to overindulge in food, but eventually I hope to get it right and balance myself out. Even though grandmas like to shower us with food and make sure we get enough to eat, we need to learn the true meaning of "enough" on our own. For some of us, that is tougher than others because it can take some time to learn that what we are truly hungry for isn't anything that can be served on a plate.