Open and consistent communication is a key component of any relationship. And although it’s sometimes easier and “more comfortable” to avoid difficult topics, it’s best to address the tough stuff promptly rather than let uncertainty or misconceptions cast a pall of unresolved cloudiness over the situation.

So when my wife said, “We need to talk,” I inhaled deeply and braced myself, praying for clarity and grace to navigate whatever was on her heart.

“Fruit Roll-Ups or Fruit By the Foot?  Which one is better?”

My knee-jerk response was Fruit By the Foot, and she shared this opinion.  But why?  Was this merely superficial? Did the implied appeal of a full 12-inches of leathery high-fructose corn syrup obscure the comparably meager promise of fraudulent fruit rolled-up in a smaller package?  Or was there something more?

And then I remembered.  When I was 5 years old, General Mills unveiled “The Great Rolupo” as the mascot of Fruit Roll-Ups.  Back then, Fruit By the Foot and Fruit Roll-Ups were in a dead heat for privileged positioning among Diabetogenic Delights.  But it turns out that giving the target audience (kids) recurrent nightmares with a creepy fez-wearing wizard plagued by significant strabismus was a poor marketing strategy.  They even included glow-in-the-dark light switch covers featuring Rolupo in the packages, as if children’s sleep hadn’t already been irreparably compromised by the trauma of the “Funky Chunk, Chewy Hunk, 1,001 Taste Adventures” promised in THE COMMERCIAL.

1,001 taste adventures?  No thanks. 12 inches sounds just fine…any more than that would probably elicit funky chunks of a different kind. 

Also, these sorts of important conversations ideally ought to occur in the “pre-marital counseling” phase rather than 13 years into your marriage.  But when you marry your best friend, you get to have 1,001 adventures like this on a daily basis, and it’s more delicious than anything you could ever imagine😊