Sex Toys, Pastina, What's the Difference?

Last week my son was feeling a little under the weather. He was nursing a cold and was sluggish. The damp, rainy weather wasn't helping. He was also in a funk about some personal stuff and was just having one of those days. I thought I'd make him a pot of chicken soup which magically always seems to cure what ails him. His favorite kind of chicken soup is something we simply refer to at home as "Pastina" for the teeny tiny star shaped pasta that goes in the soup. He loves it.


As is usually the norm for me, I was busy and trying to do a few things at once while making the soup. I over cooked the Pastina and it was gloppy and pasty. Mad at myself, I spooned it into the soup nevertheless when I should have pitched it and started over. When my son came out of his room and spooned up a bowl, he adopted a tone only the truly injured can conjure when faced with more injury on top of what they've already been forced to endure. 'Mom!" he wailed, "How do you screw up Pastina!”


He was crushed. He was a mere spoonful away from comfort and it all disappeared. After a few wise ass remarks about my putting mashed potatoes in chicken soup, I made a box of Mrs. Grass soup and sent him off fairly satisfied considering. Still, I felt badly for having ruined the Pastina. He needed it. Pastina is comfort food. It's comfort. It's a warm embrace that occurs from the inside. It warms and soothes and relieves some of what ails a person. It's something we need once in a while when we're down. It's a cure. One he needed.


So is sex.


I was watching a reality television show and in an attempt at humor, one of the female participants made a joke about one of the other participants needing a sex toy because she was in a funk. After a couple of snickers and knowing looks, the comment was approved by the rest of the ladies present in the scene. They nodded in agreement while giggling. I sat there muttering under my breath... she doesn't need a sex toy...she needs comfort.


How difficult it is to need comfort and not find any. How unbearable to reach out for some and find that you come up empty handed. We all need comfort. Even the strongest of us need some TLC from time to time. Life can be hard and unforgiving. So can the people in our lives be hard and unforgiving as well. Once in a while we need to reach out and get some comfort. Sometimes the comfort takes the form of a person. Sometimes it's a bowl of Pastina. Sometimes it's a sex toy. Does it really matter how we get it when we need it? All that should matter is we get the comfort we need.


One way or another.


Indeed.