Lessons learned from Twinkiegeddon

I’ve learned a few things over the past few days since the news that Hostess Brands — makers of a beloved food of my youth, the Twinkie — is going under.  I’ve learned that there are organizations out there that would cut off their proverbial nose to spite their face.  I’ve learned that we are a nation of preservationists and opportunists as Twinkies and Ho-Hos have flown off the shelves since the announcement, and I’ve learned that even some of the strongest companies and brands can go away in the blink of an eye — reinforcing that nothing gold can stay (or in this case cream filled golden cake.)

I know it seems like a strange leap to compare the collapse of a company to poetry, but that’s how my brain works.  I draw the oddest analogies,but they work for me. Change is an inevitability. In fact, when we operate under the delusion that we can keep things as they are forever in an effort to protect ourselves, we end up creating an unsustainable world that in the end, is really no ‘safer’ than allowing life to happen.

For Hostess, they tried to keep things as they were for decades, refusing to evolve with the changing nature of our economy. Once, a strict capitalist republic, there is a tipping point happening in which we as a society recognize the need for human interest, compassion and care over money. Many of us have decided that working to live and taking care of each other is more appealing than living to work and clinging to that which is fleeting. I recognize that it takes two to negotiate, and the company has been struggling.  And now, unfortunately, striking employees must also accept what is. Bankruptcy combined with a lack of a agreement between company and union will now result in nearly 19,000 employees losing their jobs.

For spiritual teachers and poets like Robert Frost, they accepted long ago that nothing is permanent, and that clinging to what never really was prevents you from embracing the peace of what already is.

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day

Nothing gold can stay.

– Robert Frost

May you find the Twinkie of life that brings you joy.

Namaste.

– Your Charmed Yogi