Dear Mudge, Black Licorice

Dear Mudge,

I love black licorice. That weird multi-colored bridge-mix. Australian soft. Whips, dips, spirals and the archaic but cherished Good n’ Plenty.GoodnPlenty

One of the reasons that I enjoy this candy so much is that, for a moment, when I eat licorice I forget about how absurd and pointless the universe is. The flavor is ancient. Anise, fennel, and even the licorice root itself (which is actually bad for your heart), provides that distinct flavor and odor. I’m sure it’s been in use for millennia.

But even a mouthful of candy-coated black-colored unctuousness cannot compensate for the feeling of falling into the void of futility that gapes like a hungry maw. A mouth that hangs open for every diverting thought I send its way—The Universe is Absurd it whispers.

What simple pleasures do you find that ease this sense of emptiness?

Your friend,

17 thoughts on “Dear Mudge, Black Licorice

  1. Well, black licorice is in there with Bleu Cheese for me. But red licorice…the old greasy ropes, not the new stuff.
    And Mexican food.
    Simple words. Clear thoughts.
    Sex? What’s that?
    Escapism. If I could not play or write or dream my way out of here, I would be dead.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. At the end of 10 hours of this ultimately pointless coding, my spent mind struggles to crawl from the hole it’s dug in the fabric of reality. This surreal world, one where we think work has meaning or purpose, is the void I continuously fail to escape. And yet here I am, a slave in this software salt mine.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Were it not for children, “responsibilities” and the right thing I would be, unencumbered, writing with a pen, in a tent, selling some hippie woman’s jewelry on weekends and weeding a vineyard in the fog to clear my mind. So. I hate a wasted day as much as the next man. Which is why I see my miserable peers with their big houses, fancy cars and deep scars and say, well, I should feel guilty for having some fun while I got paid. But I don’t. How do I know there’s a God? I sat on a piano bench playing tone poems with Herbie Hancock, felt the electricity become sound from Eddie’s 5150 right into my face. I don;t care to explain the cosmos, or order or how chaos becomes magic. But it does. And I don;t feel guilty because my portfolio is non existent, or my daughter’s a successful attorney or the oil business brutalized my friends. Because we all pay a price.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. I just read of a recipe that used shredded carrots, vinegar, garlic and coriander. It comes from Koreans who escaped late 1800’s, early 1900’s to Russia. They were then displaced to Uzbekistan where cabbage for kimchi was rare. Coriander was a local spice that apparently grew all over a million square mile area.
      Some people find the taste of cilantro (the leaves of coriander) to be of soap. Strange no?

      Liked by 3 people

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