The sweetness of life

Please do not look at this photo before reading the text.

Years ago, I was out to dinner in New York with some friends – Kate, Jon (her boyfriend at the time) and somebody else I am not remembering. It was a summer night, we were at a steak house, the wine flowed, and we were having a ball. The conversation flowed across the table, fast and furious.

Kate and I were talking about something at one point, and focused on each other. Jon started talking, too, and at first I thought he was talking to the other person at the table, so I didn’t listen. But gradually, through my own talking, I began to hear that he was talking in a high voice, kind of a snooty upper-class voice, and he had been going on and on for some time, and what he was saying went something like this:

“I just feel that people focus too much on ‘sweetness’ these days … that all they care about is sweetness, sweetness, sweetness … I do not understand the obsession with sweetness … It is as though people only care about ‘sweetness’ … There is nothing else that matters to them … it is all just about SWEETNESS …”

What the HELL are you babbling about, Jon? And what is your sudden ISSUE with sweetness? Also, what the hell is going on with your VOICE?

It finally got our attention (as it was meant to all along), and we turned to him, and saw him sitting there, as he had been all along, like this.