Who would you rather be?:

• Tim
• Dawn
• David
• Gareth
  

The Fortune

This one says “people count up the faults of those who keep them waiting”

“What does that one mean?” I asked. “If you show people one fault, and let it linger then they’ll start noticing your other faults.” He answered.

Hmmmm, ok. “What about this one: ‘Honesty is the best policy, but while there is truth in humour there is no humour in truth.” I frowned “that isn’t true…” He agreed “Yeah, what about that saying ‘fact is stranger than fiction.’”

Some of them weren’t fortunes in the slightest. She read aloud “One should feel freedom of the mind.” Someone pushed a filled wineglass to her, which she cheerfully accepted.

I held up the one I’d gotten last night “A fall in a ditch will make you wiser.”

Well. Surely they could have used a better metaphor. Something like, if you play with fire you’re likely to get burned. “A game of sticks can end with one eye out.” I suggested.

Someone down the far end held up theirs “Mine isn’t so true, I’m too far at the end of the table.” “What’s it say?” his neighbour turned quickly to look, knocking over a wine glass which splashed all over the fortune holders front. There was a moment of silence as happens in unexpected accidents. Then they laughed with a surprising ferocity, unable to speak they handed the fortune to the clumsy neighbour who read aloud “You are the centre of every groups attention.”

The Meaning

“Now, I just have to see this tattoo of yours, what does it say?” he paused to take it in and then, aloud read “Can’t believe how strange it is to be anything at all” and smiled thoughtfully. I hadn’t come up with a good sound bite for why I had it and what it meant but for the most part it hadn’t mattered. Most people didn’t attempt a meaning. “So…is that like that feeling you get every now and then, when you can’t believe that you’re a being alive on this little spinning rock in a massive universe and you’re heart feels so big yet you realize that you’re so small and it’s all so amazing and overwhelming?” he asked.

I blinked, totally bewildered at his description. “Yes. Yes it is. I…can’t believe how accurate you just were.” He grinned “Life really puts the blinders on, doesn’t it? Thank god for that feeling”

The reason that there are vegetarian foods shaped like meat foods is that we live in a meat eating society. If you are invited to a barbecue and are vegetarian, what will you eat? What can you bring to the table that will fit on those hamburger buns, those hot dog buns, what will go with that mustard or ketchup?
If you are vegetarian and American and you find yourself on Thanksgiving AKA Turkey Day, what is going to be your central dish? Are you satisfied with a bevy of side dish types?
You like chicken but you don't like the politics of meat. You love bacon. You like hot dogs. But you aren't one for creative cooking, you don't know where to begin. What are you going to eat? The Ficken, the facon, the Tofurky...those are just replacements. And they don't taste like meat, anyway.