Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Letter II
The letter regarding the birthday cake (ps, the birthday party was amazing, despite the fact that my father called me on my mother's birthday, two days before mine, I think this has been the best birthday in about 10 years. 18 comes pretty close, but I had to organise that one myself.
Okay, the letter:
Dear Matthew
Happy Birthday
About your cake:
The cake, basically is a ridiculously large, completely over-the-top pulsating, reverberating chocolate heart. It is awkwardly, gloriously overwhelming...It is self-aware and although the cake knows how much space it already consumes it is constantly asking itself
"How can I be more?"...It considers "Maybe if I start chanting 'cocoa bean, vanilla bean, dream whip' in sanskrit I'll transcend being a mere cake and become an edible metaphor."
The cake has flowers on its chest. It admits the flowers aren't a metaphor, they're excess, decorative, they probably could stand to be stripped away...The cake believes that if it manages to strip enough away it might return to its essence, which is essentially a small lump of unsweetened baker's chocolate. The cake is secretly afraid of revealing its true nature.
The cake has many layers. It wonders: "Why can't I just be a normal cake and work in an office somewhere where I won't have to feel so much?" But even as it wonders this the cake understands that it will always feel too much after all it's a freakin heart shaped cake!
Early today the cake expressed some concerns that maybe it was too dry or perhaps too sweet or not sweet enough or not interesting enough...or that maybe people weren't interested in a chocolate cake at all that they would've preferred a flan. The cake shudders at the thought of flan...so the cake did some work on this and realized that those fears were caused by a deep need for the love that it has to offer to be accepted. The fact that this acceptance would probably result in its being savagely cut into small pieces and devoured doesn't even occur to the cake...but if the cake did realize this its response would most likely be "Bring it on!"
The cake is confused about its sense of home. It's understandable as in its short life time the cake has moved from bowl to pan to cooling rack to freezer to tray which was too large, to tray which was too slimsy, to something just right that wasn't a tray at all...and then there was that embarassing incident with the icing. But the cake is coming to terms with its transient nature and is resolved to creating a sense of home whrever it lands by developing a network in the community...as I write this the cake is working at getting to know some salmon pockets in the fridge. They seem to just want sex and the cake is not sure if that's what it wants. (It actually just wants to love...that's why it's shaped like a heart not like a pole dancing pole or a Vancouver Art Gallery)
What the cake doesn't know is that it is directly on its path towards fulfilling its ultimate purpose, in fact there is a higher power that created it and is leading it towards a bright shining moment of glorious light where it will be called upon to give absolutely everything of itself to a room full of complete strangers (How divine!).
The cake is complicated. It's had a pretty hard life. the cake heard somewhere that life is pain. It still finds ways to be grateful.
I watched the cake evolve and was stunned by its rate of transformation and also with how gracefully it handled itself through some awkward moments.
Oh Matthew! The reason that I love you is that I don't know if I'm writing about you, me, the cake or everything.
It has been a joy to know you and I am so grateful that you followed whatever impulses led you here. Where will they lead you in your 27th year?
Have a Happy Birthday.
All my love,
Ronya
P.S. The cake ironed no shirts at all yesterday, nor did it wake up at 7am to iron more shirts. The cake is just happy being a cake...it's doing cakeasana.
Okay, the letter:
Dear Matthew
Happy Birthday
About your cake:
The cake, basically is a ridiculously large, completely over-the-top pulsating, reverberating chocolate heart. It is awkwardly, gloriously overwhelming...It is self-aware and although the cake knows how much space it already consumes it is constantly asking itself
"How can I be more?"...It considers "Maybe if I start chanting 'cocoa bean, vanilla bean, dream whip' in sanskrit I'll transcend being a mere cake and become an edible metaphor."
The cake has flowers on its chest. It admits the flowers aren't a metaphor, they're excess, decorative, they probably could stand to be stripped away...The cake believes that if it manages to strip enough away it might return to its essence, which is essentially a small lump of unsweetened baker's chocolate. The cake is secretly afraid of revealing its true nature.
The cake has many layers. It wonders: "Why can't I just be a normal cake and work in an office somewhere where I won't have to feel so much?" But even as it wonders this the cake understands that it will always feel too much after all it's a freakin heart shaped cake!
Early today the cake expressed some concerns that maybe it was too dry or perhaps too sweet or not sweet enough or not interesting enough...or that maybe people weren't interested in a chocolate cake at all that they would've preferred a flan. The cake shudders at the thought of flan...so the cake did some work on this and realized that those fears were caused by a deep need for the love that it has to offer to be accepted. The fact that this acceptance would probably result in its being savagely cut into small pieces and devoured doesn't even occur to the cake...but if the cake did realize this its response would most likely be "Bring it on!"
The cake is confused about its sense of home. It's understandable as in its short life time the cake has moved from bowl to pan to cooling rack to freezer to tray which was too large, to tray which was too slimsy, to something just right that wasn't a tray at all...and then there was that embarassing incident with the icing. But the cake is coming to terms with its transient nature and is resolved to creating a sense of home whrever it lands by developing a network in the community...as I write this the cake is working at getting to know some salmon pockets in the fridge. They seem to just want sex and the cake is not sure if that's what it wants. (It actually just wants to love...that's why it's shaped like a heart not like a pole dancing pole or a Vancouver Art Gallery)
What the cake doesn't know is that it is directly on its path towards fulfilling its ultimate purpose, in fact there is a higher power that created it and is leading it towards a bright shining moment of glorious light where it will be called upon to give absolutely everything of itself to a room full of complete strangers (How divine!).
The cake is complicated. It's had a pretty hard life. the cake heard somewhere that life is pain. It still finds ways to be grateful.
I watched the cake evolve and was stunned by its rate of transformation and also with how gracefully it handled itself through some awkward moments.
Oh Matthew! The reason that I love you is that I don't know if I'm writing about you, me, the cake or everything.
It has been a joy to know you and I am so grateful that you followed whatever impulses led you here. Where will they lead you in your 27th year?
Have a Happy Birthday.
All my love,
Ronya
P.S. The cake ironed no shirts at all yesterday, nor did it wake up at 7am to iron more shirts. The cake is just happy being a cake...it's doing cakeasana.
// posted by MSR @ 4:41 PM 
