Proust’s madeleine

 

Now for those of you (probably quite a few) who have never heard of Proust, never mind his madeleines, he was a French writer and philosopher who in his book “In search of Lost time” uses the madeleine – a small French cookie – to explain memory and how our memories are often linked to tastes and smells

I have had a couple of proustien experiences lately. One at Christmas when my older son gave us each a cinnamon roll: straight back to my aunt and mother’s cinnamon rolls of the weekend. Oh the memories, oh the flavours – thank you son!

The second such was today in one of my local grocery stores. There in the front on a table of Asian specialities were boxes of Fortune Cookies! Hadn’t seen one, never mind opened one in a long, long time. Of course I had to buy a box, and of course I had to open it: Written in Chinese and in English my first “fortune”.

“You possess a broad mind to pioneer the new century”. OK, I can live with that, even though it is neither a new century, nor to I perhaps have the energy to pioneer anything, never mind that another body part is probably “broader” than my mind.

Wonder what my third (my life always goes in threes) proustien memory is going to be?