You Really Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too

The Split Second-In Consideration of Others in These Trying Times

I thank all of you who have been so supportive as I try to get support for my unpublished book The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others. I still have faith that I can have the experience of having it published. I need to find ways to “get the word out,” and that is what is difficult for me right now.

Right now, my mind is around various expressions we use, and perhaps we have used them since the “dawn of time.”  One expression that comes to mind right now is: “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” Literally, that sounds ridiculous when we think of the words as they are said and/or written verbatim. If we buy a cake or a slice of cake, we are going to eat the cake. I think most readers know what is being said by this. However, I am glad I learned a long time ago, that “you can’t have it all.” Life has some sacrifices. The example I give here is that I live alone, and I think sometimes that it would be nice to have a dog, two dogs, or more. I love dogs as there is something sweet and loyal about a dog that is very special. However, I like to travel, I live in a townhouse with no yard, and I like to come and go at a moment’s notice. None of that would be beneficial for a dog. It would be pitiful to leave a dog in my townhouse alone for long periods of time, and it would be worse to put a dog in a kennel for many days of the year while I travel. As I tell folks, “I love dogs, but I don’t want the responsibility of having a dog; it wouldn’t be fair to the dog.” So, when we say, “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” I know I can’t. I think folks out in the world need to contemplate that notion. It’s a matter of being fair to those (human and otherwise) whom we deal with on a day-to-day basis.