Last Meals
Every collection of writ needs whimsy. With that in mind, I consider last meals.
I assume folks are mostly like me and have wondered about their final moments preceeding death. It’s a little dark, perhaps even morbid. But some good can come from delving into the mind’s myriad workings to see how you might behave during moments of truth.
When it comes to last meals (or last sunsets, kisses, thoughts, words, etc) something seems to me inherently misaligned. I think it stems from the fact that we assume those moments are significant relative to moments in, say, the middle of our lives. That assumption comes, of course, from our basic presumption that WE are significant relative to other life.
Maybe you’ll pardon the pessimism if I describe it this way:
Chances are very good that your last meal won’t be worth dying for.
My grandmother frequently described food as “to die for”. The idiom was understood as such, because while my grandmother’s use of this phrase equated Bagel Bites and lobster bisque, logic suggests that the two are not comparable cuisine.
Certainly most people could think of a favorite meal that they would prefer, were it to be their last, but I suspect that in very few cases are those folks ready to say that it’d be worth dying for.
Now in deference to objectivity, here’s a possible exception.
The Bruce passionately objects to this closed minded statement in light of an extraordinary corned beef, cabbage, and potato feast last night at his supper table.
The Bruce
March 18, 2008 at 3:51 pm
[...] Last Meals [...]
The Sagamore Journal: March Review « The Sagamore Journal
March 31, 2008 at 10:51 pm
The Bruce, who has recently been reading Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men found that this quote breathes new into Don Lando’s musings on moments.
“How life is strange and changeful, and the crystal is in the steel at the point of fracture, and the toad bears a jewel in its forehead, and the meaning of moments passes like the breeze that scarcely ruffles the leaf of the willow.”
The Bruce
May 23, 2008 at 5:50 pm