Touche, Cliche...

HELLO GENTLE READERS,

Ever hear the cliche, "You can't have your cake and eat it, too."? I just don't get it. Why have a cake and not eat it? It simply doesn't make sense! Think about it. First you sift some flour. Then you mix all the other ingredients, pour the batter into the pans, then put the pans in the oven. After they're baked, you get them out, let them cool (which always seems to take twice as long as the clock says it is) and put the first one, upside down, on a plate. After frosting the first one, you take the second layer and hope it doesn't break when you set it, oh so carefully, atop the first. Upon finishing with the application of the remainder of the icing, you pretty it up with all the swirly-gigs with the knife. Now you have a lovely cake staring you in the face. Why the heck would you NOT eat it? Sure, maybe you need to wait until the party starts, or maybe postpone until after dinner. There's many possibilities of reasons to wait to eat the cake. Maybe the cake is for someone else and you aren't going to eat it at all. But someone's going to eat it, eventually, right? To not eat it is absolutely crazy! Even if you use a cake mix, or easier still, buy a cake from the grocery, it still just doesn't make sense NOT to eat a cake when you have one.

What does this cliche mean anyway? Would it be as accurate to say, "You can't have a car and drive it, too", or "You can't have a cell phone and make phone calls"? It seems that there is a tendency in some lives to work hard, obtain the things that make life easier, then not enjoy them. Why? Some kind of twisted survivors guilt thing? "I have nice things and you don't so I WON'T enjoy them"? I just don't get it. I like cake. I like eating cake. I especially like sharing a cake with others. Sometimes I really, really like eating a cake all by myself.

But why, Why, WHY have a cake and NOT eat it? After all, it was recommended by Marie Antoinette. It just isn't right. It's almost like saying, underneath it all, "You can't have the gift of life and LIVE it, too".

LaVerna Huey