tittytangents.com

“Write about marshmallows.”

That’s what she told me.

We were sitting in lawn chairs, squinting and blinking against the smoke from the fire as we made s’mores, and she told me to write about marshmallows. I cocked my head and furrowed my brows. And then I nodded. I told her I could make that work.

When it comes to cooking marshmallows, I like mine pretty much charred, with a gooey lump of sugary goodness on the inside. I let it catch on fire until it’s nothing but a sticky wad of marshmallow wearing a jacket of ashes. That’s my perfect marshmallow. And considering my ideal marshmallow is what most people so often think of as an accident that happens in pursuit of their own ideal, I’m not difficult to please when it comes to toasting the little buggers. But as much as I love my fireside treats well-done, there are far more people who prefer theirs a different way entirely: golden brown.

Golden brown. It’s the color of everything delicious. Cookies, French fries, biscuits, and marshmallows. If it’s not golden brown, it’s not even worth your time. Golden brown is the standard of heat-related perfection. It takes skill. It takes patience. It takes a lot of mistakes. But if you ever get that golden brown marshmallow, that’s a little piece of heaven on the end of your skewer.

If you’re too timid with your roasting, you wind up undercooking it. It’s still cool in the middle, and the outside is barely flame-kissed. If you’re too bold and always say “Just one more second… One more second and it’ll be perfect,” you typically char the life out of it (and then you give it to me, and I eat it with gusto). Meeting the Golden Brown Standard is something most spend their lives trying to do, but not many actually succeed at.

…And that last sentence was where I stopped talking about marshmallows.

The trials and tribulations that surround roasting the perfect s’mores component go far beyond the campfire. The quest for Golden Brownness is something we work toward in our daily lives, whether we realize it or not.

Some of us are scared to push things too far. When the going gets tough, we get going. We do what’s good enough, and that’s good enough for us. Our marshmallows are always cold and barely cooked at all. But we eat them anyway because we made them.

Then there are others of us who seem to always take it too far. We don’t know when to stop. We get so caught up in “go big or go home” that we miss the chance to rein things in and do something great. We jump the shark. And our marshmallows are charred all to hell. And I eat them because I like ‘em that way, but most people just chuck it into the flames and start fresh.

But then there are those of us who watch, wait, and plan, always aware that there’s a delicate balance between tenacity and timidity. We don’t think ourselves out of great ideas because they require a lot of work, but nor do we go balls to the walls when it comes to taking on a project. We’re adventurous and cautious. We’re leaders who follow. We take initiative and let others storm ahead. We learn from our mistakes, both from undercooking and charring our marshmallows. And when we think we’re onto something, we slow down. We keep an eye on things. Because ain’t no way we’re gonna miss our chance at some Golden Brown perfection.

More often than not, we just barely miss it. The edge caught on fire, perhaps. But it’s ruined as far as we’re concerned. And it’s kind of sad. We can turn it around, inspect it from every angle, and see its only one flaw. Aside from that, it’s a thing to behold, our nearly-perfect marshmallow. But we saw what it could’ve been. It was almost ours. But we missed it. We eat it with a sigh. We say “Wow, that was so close.” And maybe we start to think that it’s not worth the fight. And some of us stop trying.

But those of us that don’t stop never will. Because even though none of us are guaranteed our Golden Brown perfection in our lifetime, we know that if we don’t keep going, it’s guaranteed that we’ll never get it. And that’s not something we can accept. So we stick our faces back in the smoke, carefully turn our skewers, making sure not to get too close to the flames, and give it another shot. And sometimes, if we’re fortunate enough, our hard work is rewarded when we slowly draw our marshmallow from the fire and see that it is a delicious, wonderful, and perfect Golden Brown. We sit looking at it for a moment, in awe that we finally did it, and pop it into our mouth. It tastes like victory.

When it comes to roasting non-metaphorical marshmallows, my ideal is considered to be an error by most people. I love the burnt ones and dislike all things lightly toasted. But once you get me away from the campfire, I’m all about that Golden Brown Standard.

My stomach is full of slightly-burnt marshmallows that were so close. I’ve got a little bit of a tummyache.

But since I love marshmallows, I think I’m going to buy another bag of Jet Puffed, throw another log on the fire, and keep on trying.

Sometimes I think I smell onions. There is almost never an onion in sight when I think I smell them. My first reaction upon encountering this familiar scent is “Yum, onions!” because I am quite fond of that particular root vegetable. My second reaction, which is always very quick in following the first, is “I wonder if that is someone’s body odor.” Because sometimes B.O. is oniony in nature. I’m always confused when I think I’m smelling onions because I can never be sure if I ought to be salivating or grimacing. The smell of onions could be either good or bad, and I will be forever tormented by the mystery.

Life is filled with things like the puzzling, evanescent onion aroma that perplexes me so. These are things toward which I am very ambivalent. Does this onion smell mean there are tasty sandwiches nearby, or am I standing close to someone whose deodorant isn’t working? It’s anybody’s guess.

But this ambiguity exists in things more serious than lingering remnants of sandwiches and body odor. In the case of one enigma in particular, my dichotomous feelings go much deeper than feeling either hungry or nauseated: I could feel either empowered and proud or just plain disappointed. This particular enigma concerns ladies and booze. And by “ladies and booze” I mean powerful, take-no-shit women and single malt scotch.

Scotch whisky has a considerable presence in movies and television. Tough, hard-edged guys sit hunched over a bar, lamenting the loss of money and/or women as they gruffly order it on the rocks—a double, and tell the bartender to keep it coming. Sharp-dressed lawyers sit in comfortable, yet minimalist chairs as they sip it neat from wide-mouthed glasses. Polished businessmen flirt with the cute cocktail waitress as they order it with soda in an attempt to make the dull chitchat of the company Christmas party more bearable. It’s become quite the cliché at this point. Any time the strong male protagonists decide they need a drink and reach into their desk drawer for the bottle they keep for such occasions, you can almost always count on it being scotch.

Scotch is power, refinement, and luxury. Scotch is warm, amber masculinity. And no strong alpha female should be without a well-aged bottle, just in case.

About a week ago I was watching an episode of Ugly Betty online. Wilhelmina, the co-editor-in-chief, was discussing shrewd financial strategies with a male colleague. After their conversation came to a close, this colleague made an observation about her. He remarked that she seemed like the kind of woman who would have a bottle of single-malt scotch. She pulled out her unopened bottle from the cabinet, along with two glasses, and poured a couple of drinks.

Girl power, right? She can rival men in both business and social matters. She can take that symbol of strength and masculinity and make it her own. She can pry the “BOYS ONLY” sign from the side of the clubhouse, stride in on stilettoed heels, and make herself at home. This can be the sign that women are officially equals in the same profession as their male colleagues. I’ve seen this happen in a handful of other TV shows and movies, which could indicate the un-gendering of scotch’s symbolism. Maybe now scotch is just Power, period.

Hey, wait a second… Do you smell onions?

On the Sandwich Side, strong women sipping fine scotch may indicate the overcoming of gender discrimination in the workplace. Women are forces to be reckoned with. Women can do whatever the men can do, and perhaps even better (especially when it comes to wearing suits, because that can be sexy as hell. But I digress). And by writing our female leads as being refined drinkers of astronomically expensive whisky, the characters (and by extension, women in general) are given more respect and admiration.

But here’s the Body Odor Side: Perhaps the co-opting of a traditionally male pastime is not the beacon of feminist achievement that it first appeared to be. What if it’s more of a commentary on women conforming to predominately male standards pertaining to power and its display? Are women drinking scotch because they discovered what all the fuss was about, or are they drinking it because that is what successful men are shown doing? And if it is the latter reason, does this mean that these women are merely mimicking this behavior so they can fit in with the other guys? If the Body Odor Side is the true side, then women aren’t being portrayed as powerful and independent ass-kickers at all; they’re being made to look like conforming man-wannabes who need to do what the boys do.

When I think I smell onions, I always look for clues. Am I OK with potentially craving a sandwich if what I’m really smelling is someone’s rank bodily aroma? Would I be bothered if I was put off my hunger because I assumed it wasn’t really onions I got a whiff of? I’m always so torn.

And much like when I think I smell onions, I must accept that I might never know the truth. Whether sandwich or body odor, female empowerment or copy-catting the boys, the confusion will not be overcome any time soon.

But I kind of like it that way, to be honest. It keeps me on my toes. It keeps me interested.

And sometimes it makes me hungry.

I hope you’re sitting down. I have some big news. I, your humble tangenteer, have a confession to make.

I saw Twilight: Eclipse. And by and large, I thought it was a pretty decent movie.

But this post isn’t going to be about why I saw this film or what my critiques of it are (although originally, that’s exactly what this was going to be). This post is going to be about a very important choice I made while watching the Twilight movies.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the fandom and its factions, I’ll simply say that for the most part, lovers of the books and movies generally fall into one of two categories: Team Edward or Team Jacob. Edward is the fugly vampire (sorry, Nonroot. It’s the truth!) and Jacob is the super-gorgeous werewolf. And Bella is the little trollop who has her hands in both of the monster cookie-jars. To choose a team is to say “She should be with THAT guy!”

Much to my best friend’s Cullen-lovin’ dismay, she and I are in opposite camps. I find myself squarely situated on Team Jacob. And while watching the movie, I found myself confused as to why one guy seemed better than the other.

After much thought, I decided that it wasn’t that Jacob had something spectacular to offer her (besides his astonishingly chiseled abdominal muscles), but that Edward’s relationship had something really shitty to offer: immortality.

Who the hell would choose immortality? Where’s the excitement in forever? Where’s the romance? The beauty? At least for me, the lack of a reasonable answer to any of these questions is why I think the best chance Bella has at a good life is with the mortal dude. Yeah, he’s a werewolf and that’s kinda strange, but at least he’s got a normal lifespan.

For the purpose of this Tangent, I’m going to focus on the question of beauty and immortality.

I purchased a book recently that contains single words in other languages that are not directly translatable into English. In the section for words pertaining to love and beauty, I came across a word that absolutely nails down my entire beef regarding the lack of beauty in neverending life: Aware (ah-WAH-ray). It’s a Japanese word that, more or less, describes the feelings of love, appreciation, and sadness upon seeing something beautiful that you know won’t last. Anybody who has been given a flower from someone they love knows about aware. Anybody who is fortunate enough to see the leaves change colors in autumn does too. And anybody who has washed their car only to see it covered in bird shit the next day understands it very well. In our mortal lives, aware is something to be found everywhere, because everything that lives must eventually die. And people are no exception.

With every passing moment in our lives, we are closer to dying. And I don’t mean that in a morbid, depressing way. It’s just how it is. We are fragile, vulnerable beings, us living things. But that’s what makes us beautiful. When we are adults we can look back on our childhoods and remember how carefree and full of wonder we were. When we’re middle-aged we can look back on our twenties and remember what it was like to be just starting our independent lives. And when we’re in our old age, we can remember it all and appreciate what we’ve had. That’s aware. It’s recognition of something incredible and wonderful and beautiful. It’s recognition of something that is fleeting and impermanent. It’s recognition that we should treasure life because, above all, it doesn’t last. It’s an aspect of life that we can all share. Immortality would deny us the experience of aware.

Beauty isn’t just pretty pictures and flowers. It’s also about joy and sorrow. About fulfillment and bereavement. It’s about the calm and the chaos. There are many kinds of beauty, but all of them are vital to a complete life. To miss out on even one of its aspects would be tragic.

After reading all that, would you choose immortal life? Do you think you could possibly appreciate every moment you have if you knew you had an infinite amount? Would you want to be unable to truly feel the aware in wilting flowers and aging bodies? I’m almost sorry to say it, but to be on Team Edward is to essentially answer “yes” to all these questions and more. How sad.

So join Team Jacob. Sure, that means we think Bella should ditch the vampire and get with the werewolf, but at least we know what’s beautiful.