what are YOU looking for? What's YOUR cake? ( Archived) (41)

Manolito: All I wanted in my life was some cake. I simply felt incomplete without having a thick slice of that homemade cake my nanna always baked for us.

As I was indulging myself in the chocolate-rich cake, my nanna made her appearance. She could read my mind with the greatest ease whenever she felt like. She could always do that!

“Do you like eggs? ” she asked, as soon as she noticed the darkness in my slightly reddish eyes.
“Of course ” I replied, half-mouth-full still.
“How about raw eggs? ” She continued, while calculating and sensing everything that were taking up my thoughts.

Bliah, how could she even ask this? And what was the meaning of this while in the middle of my little feast?

Without getting an answer, she proceeded in her questions

“What would you say if I poured you a mug of sugar and made you eat it?
How about a few spoonfuls of oil?
Didn’t think so!
Well, if I were to give you a bowl of flour, would you eat that?
What if I gave you a few bars of chocolate? Surely you would like that, we all love chocolate! ”

I wasn’t quite sure where she was going with this, but as many times before, she had gotten my attention by now – enough to forget about my devouring of the cake and just listen to her peculiar line of questioning.

“Remember boss (she loved to call me that in our mother-tongue ) what I have asked you today and what you answered to all of this: I just asked you one by one the ingredients I used to make the cake you so much love. Most of them, you wouldn’t think about eating them by themselves. But when blended together and tested in the fire of the stove, tendered by two loving hands, they create what you got to be in love with. There are many things that can go in a cake boss: Sometimes I add some milk, or cocoa. I might use cornflower or sesame flour to make you the halva you so much adore. If it is in season, I use oranges. Alternatively, I will add a touch of cinnamon or vanilla here and there… I know you will still love it. I also remember the horrific expression on your face after you had a bite of the cake I made when your brother exchanged the sugar for the salt in the containers and I used that without knowing. You were always so impatient to try it the minute it came out of the oven, you little devil…

I know you are leaving boss, you needn’t tell me. I just want you to take this piece of advice with you wherever you might go:
People are like cakes. They are forged in the fire of life. Their personality characteristics are like the ingredients I use for the cakes. Some of them are necessary in order to make a good cake, like eggs and flour. Eggs are like a loving open heart in a person and the white flour is his honesty. But that alone says little of the quality of the cake in the end. You need to add a lot of other ingredients, most of which you would never take on their own and put them in your mouth. And then it needs to be mixed lovingly and baked for the right amount of time. No one likes a raw or burnt cake.

Some people are like that: While they have all the right ingredients, they are not yet ready in the fire of life, or even worse, unfortunate circumstances have burned them. Show compassion, but don’t get involved with these people.

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