I recently wrote a blog post about having to apologize to the Oatmeal in my pantry. My lifelong friend Joe Hoffman read it and sent me the following comment, which he was happy to have me post here.

Hey Ken:

Don’t worry about the oatmeal’s feelings. The wheat and the oats may have grown up in fields opposite each other. An oat seed may have blown into the wheat field, or vise versa. Who knows, they may have cross-bred after the sun went down one night. They may be good friends and good neighbors.

I remember growing up in a diagonally opposed oat house across the road from a wheat house. The seeds from the two houses grew up to be good friends and there wasn’t a grain of resentment or jealousy in those seeds. So, fear not old friend, fear not. The oatmeal and the wheat bran probably remain good friends in your cupboard today. 

Joe Oat