August 4, 2018

Quasquicentennial

Ak-Mak crackers are thin and crunchy like Wheat Thins and come in large perforated square sheets like matzah crackers.

Unlike Wheat Thins, Ak-Maks are not salty and sweet. And they aren’t dry and bland like matzah. They have a distinctive flavor. They’re nutty, hearty, not salty... they just sorta taste vaguely healthy.

It’s like someone took a delicious whole grain bread and flattened it into a crispy cracker. They have that magical kind of taste that is assertive and yet doesn’t compete with the flavor anything you put on them.

And I oughta know. I put lots of stuff on Ak-Maks. They are basically my bread.

I’ll eat them with strawberry jam or cream cheese or sharp cheddar or pepper jelly or cucumbers with mayo or chicken salad with sliced red grapes or peanut butter with raisins... whatever. They work with most anything.

For lunch today, I grabbed some roasted red pepper hummus and a fresh new box of Ak-Maks. When I opened the box, I found something unexpected. There was a card inside, affixed to the cellophane wrapper.

The card proudly stated that this year, Ak-Mak Bakeries is celebrating their 125 anniversary.

Wow. 125 years? As I munched, I found myself wondering... Will anything I’m working on still be around in 125 years? I mean... what are the odds? Of all the activities that I engage in every day, which ones have even a shed of a chance of leading to something that could outlive me by generations?

Obviously, nobody has a crystal ball. I have no idea how things might play out. That said... I can identify with a reasonable degree of confidence which of my pursuits have no chance of outliving me, and which at least have a shot at it.

To use a baseball analogy, I can tell which things are me sitting in the stands watching and which are me stepping up to the plate.

I have no Idea if I’ll ever hit a home run, but I’m positive that my chances are better when I have a bat in my hands.

What about you? Do you ever step up to the plate? What would a home run look like for you?

(BTW - It doesn’t have to be grandiose, like: “I was the first person to set foot on Mars.” It could be as simple as “I make a cracker that people absolutely love.”)

Yours,

—J

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