Friday, February 22, 2008
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spaces for the polar bears
TODAY AN ATHEIST saw an image of the Big Bang in a slice of burnt toast. Star clusters are clearly discernible in the upper right hand corner, he said. The atheist is not a friend of mine. He’s a cousin of hers. You don’t need an astronomy degree to see the universe, he said, pointing to the burn patterns. It's right there, he added, buttering the Milky Way galaxy. I had come home early from work. I had put my shoes under the rack in the foyer. And the atheist was standing there, down the hall, in the kitchen, in front of the stove, holding a piece of bread with a pair of tongs over the open flame.
I hadn’t said hello. I said why isn’t he using the toaster for that. She had leaned in to my ear and breathed that no, remember that cousin is from the country, remember that the farm that his family had owned for generations was foreclosed just last week, remember, and be nice about it. And I had whispered back that wasn’t he a little early, I thought he was supposed to be here later tonight.
Cousin wanted to surprise us, she had exhaled. Oh. Then I had asked aloud, audible even to him, why he was toasting the entire loaf of bread, piece by piece. But she had said cousin, when you’re done with that, remember to stack them all back up neatly inside the bag.
That was when cousin said that our solar system was clearer in this here slice than any other one. I asked why he kept toasting only one side and leaving the other untouched. He was leaving room on the other side, he said. For the polar bears, he said. Where it isn’t as hot, he showed me. Then he continued what he was doing. He went back to it, working his way to the end of the loaf, still looking for explosions.
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Comments (72)
we need to have faiiiiiiiiiiiith in times of hardship
the word "foreclosures" reminded me of hillary clinton. i dont know why
I tried once, but I couldn't do it.
"buttering the Milky Way galaxy"...i like that little aside.
Agreed.
I was an athiest for a year or so, about three years ago. Then a friend told me, "to be an athiest takes just as much faith as anything else." I agreed with him, and turned agnostic at that moment. "With so many opinions, who is to say?" I say.
About your story ... Hmmm, it definitely makes me think, because the allusions are far reaching. I'm not entirely sure why he's burning the toast. It seems like something Nietzsche would admire, as an impulse. And that he thinks of it as the universe, he's playing god, very ironic. So is this just an example of humankind's dual nature? That's my interpretation, anyway.
I'm sure you are right about Roskolnikov. I just finished Crime and Punishment within a month, and am influenced by what I recently read. One of my goals as a writer is for my protagonists to one day be as internal as Dostoevsky's, but I don't want them to be as cynical.
It's so simple and quirky. You just capture that style of writing so well! You have such an impressive imagination. And you write so frequently! I always have long gaps between my stories. I always want to think of something original and quirky and childish and I can never think quick enough.
what exactly do you plan on doing with your life?
hmm?
What do you do for a living?
I would be surprised if it was anything other than writing.
Your stories are always so quizzical. Even so, you seemed to have mastered the art of hidden, indiscernible meaning that somehow is still understood subconsciously—such mastery that many of us writers strive to even get the opportunity to catch it in our grasp.
It would be a said day if you were to resign from writing.
~Gizladlo
PS — Polar bears, but no golden compass? Couldn't you make a reference to the butter as being a "golden compass" in the middle of the piece of bread? Don't explicitly say "golden compass", as that would lose your voice (or otherwise clash with it), but mention how the piece of toast is "a golden diamond resting in it's center" or something similar, if you do decide to use my suggestion.
this is perfect. this is brilliant. this is my favorite thing i have read in ages.
Hah. Everyone has their muses, don't they? :)
The biggest lie any person can offer is claiming to not be human..
(I read the the other's comments...and feel so uneducated,lol) Okay, first off why does everyone beat me to comment? And second off, this is the last time I read one of your works after JUST waking I'm not only am I now starved but confused as hell...which is normal,lol. (lol, Je deviendrai les autres pour un moment,lol)
Is the piece of bread representative of anything? This is so Niezchesque and says so much about the world we live in. *shoots self*
Reading your stories reminds me of doing a puzzle, for some reason. Very interesting. Polar bears, eh...? You should watch Lost.
RYC: I love water and gum! Pickles... not so much. ;)
Hmm... polar bears and toast. I have you know that my nickname at work is Toast because my s/n is reminiscent of "melba toast" .. anyways, why butter? Why not jam?
This piece, like all of your other pieces, make me think. I wish I can write like this, not like the crap I write on mine.
And oh yea, Walter... he's a Ninja like that. Creeping in and what-not.
i love getting to enjoy your imagination
buttering the Milky Way galaxy...awesome
thanks for writing
Religion and science.
Brain teases.
Nicely done, V.
Very well done and perfectly titled.
It was nice of him to leave space for the polar bears, what with global warming and all. I suppose he felt he was some Master of the Universe, toasting all those Bangs.
i just realized that when i read this, i pictured my grandfather i never met as the atheist the entire time. the only thing that matches up is the atheism. he was some big-time engineer for GE in the thirties, forties maybe? maybe earlier. but my dad was a farm boy somehow? who knew engineers would be raising farm boys.
you have such a creative and interesting mind my friend..
Thanks for dropping by my site!
Interesting entry. You are very creative.
-Guru on the Hill
something amazing.
hopefully meaningful.
and always writing.
=) (for me)
what that amazing thing is-
no one ever really knows until it's over.
those tiny little polar bears that were invisible to an untrained eye were all having a party as they were put back into the bread loaf bag.. their enemies on the other side had been incinerated by a caring country cousin.. if you leaned in closer, you would have heard the music..and before long, you would have been caught dancing around the kitchen with your ear to a loaf of bread. ah, simple joys.
di he ever eat that peice of toast?
Thanks for stopping by my site. Wonderful writing.