Food and Marriage

My wife does all the cooking in our crib. I got the double bonus, not only is she a pretty woman but she sure can cook.

We rarely go to restaurants. Every night is a feast. Every feast is a supersensual work of art. I love to take photographs of works of art if the artist approves. My wife doesn't approve. Out of all of the hundreds/thousand of feasts, I have maybe a dozen photographs. She always tells me "stop looking at your food and eat it". 

On the other hand, I write a story almost every day although most of my stories are plotless and conflict free. My writings are more like metaphysictional amalgamations. I get an inspiration, an idea, an angle, I throw in some irony, some ethos, pathos and bathos. I stir in past present and future, singular and plural. I arrive. I type for a half hour. I edit for five minutes and voila it's finished. 

Heres' the difference. I save most all of my stories. I can retrieve them and re-read them when ever I feel like it. I can even improve them. I can change the endings or add new characters.I've got 1300 amalgamations stored in one place where they stay fresh and can be enjoyed by anyone who stumbles upon them. 

The edible feasts, which require more skill. more ingredients, more planning and more patience only survive in memory. It's kinda sad but as we all know, you can't eat your cake and have it too but we can occasionally photograph that cake and write about it  whenever the inspiration, the idea and the angle appear.

The whole situation is a perfect example of the fragile, complex balance that exists in every marriage. Lynn's culinary creations are ephemeral masterpieces to be savored in the moment but living on primarily in memory.

My writings on the other hand, provide a tangible record of my creaitve process which when gathered together allows revisitation, recalculation and refinement over time all semingly adding up to an excruciating auto-biography.

I don't photograph her work and she doesn't read mine.