Ain’t nothing quite like one of the candy-based holidays^[1] to make us diabetics feel real special.

Had a dream that I was pigging out on Easter chocolate like there was nothing to worry about. This happens to me from time to time. I dream that I have gone way overboard in the whole not eating sugar category, usually by having something like the candy bars I miss so much in MASSIVE quantity. Often, for some reason, this involves a period of the dream where I am shopping at a supermarket. Well, that IS where I used to get my chocolate bars (candy bars, for you Americans) most of the time. I used to live for those great “two chocolate bars for a dollar at the checkout” sales. Booya, I am gonna stock up on Coffee Crisps, Skor bars, Cookies and Cream and Cookies and Mint! Damn, I miss my bars.

I’m no saint, I still have The Wrong Thing now and then. But not chocolate bars. Usually, it’s a restaurant dessert and it’s something not too sweet and it’s after a big meal with plenty of protein and complex carbs, so the sugar doesn’t hit my system too hard.

For someone like me, these dreams where I oink out on chocolate are like those dreams that former junkies have where they have gone back on the junk. They are both sick wish fulfillment (satisfying the craving virtually, in the dream world) and a terrible nightmare, because you wake up thinking “oh no oh no, I am screwed now!” and it takes some time for your poor brain to sort everything out and inform you that it was all a dream and you can calm down and relax now.

Of course, it’s not like I was ever a chocoholic (addicted to chocohol) or had a serious sweet tooth or anything, so the analogy doesn’t really hold. I loved the chocolate bars, but I never craved them like it was an addiction or anything. I just enjoyed them now and then, and given the nature of the modern supermarket experience, they are the things I most often encounter and wistfully desire.

Those chocolate bars are always there when I buy something anywhere, really. The margin on chocolate bars must be enormous for them to be able to afford that kind of coverage. If you are paying for something in the mdoerjn world, odds are good you’re doing it next to a lot of chocolate.

And yes, there are times when I cannot help but resent the ease and ignorant joy with which most of the world participates in the glorious world of sugary treats. All those people blithely getting their ice cream and their cookies and their cakes and their cereals and their any kind of pop they want at a restaurant, completely ignorant of how much of society is built for them to enjoy and how lucky they are to not have to dwell in the No Sugar Added ghetto if they want something sweet and tasty and fun.

I suppose that’s true for any disability, really. Most people have no idea how lucky they are not to suffer from depression, either. How lucky they are to feel happy and be able to do things and not always worry about things and hate yourself.

And it’s not like I go around constantly thinking about how great it is that I can walk, see, and have a nervous system that more or less works. I live in a modern country, and so I have a quality of life far better than at least half of the world, even on $8000/year. I am highly intelligent and articulate and have had opportunities others would envy. But I still feel sorry for myself sometimes. We are all defined by our own limitations far more than by the limitations of others, and so we focus on them, and forget to be glad for the ones we don’t have.

Then again, it’s not like we can go around in a constant state of gratitude. We wouldn’t get anything done!

Anyhow, my Easter message for you is to enjoy your sweet treats, and maybe take some time to think of all the problems you do not have and be glad you live someplace with Internet and computers and literacy and shelter to make all this possible.

You could have done a hell of a lot worse in life.