The Tao of fortune cookies

April 25, 2009 ·

I received a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant a little while ago which read: "Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed." I was wondering how it was that concepts like darkroom (dark room) and negatives (film, emotions) could play out so conveniently in Chinese as well as in English – a veritable bilingual Zen tapestry. A friend of mine who teaches Asian history informed me that fortune cookies are actually an American invention. Who knew?

Anyway, I decided to explore the potential for a second career in a new field of writing. After all, isn’t the fortune the thing you remember from the meal and discuss with others – provided that they offer the intellectual stimulation that they should in this privileged context. So, a few starters:

• If, like the snail, you carry your house with you, you will feel secure, but you will always be slow – and the salt on the roads will kill you.

• He who dies with the most toys has wasted his life if he has not played with them.

• A man with a thousand eyes is like a fly – he sees everything, but only in small pieces.

• Life is like a frog – when you embrace it, you do not know if you will find a prince or get warts.

• There is a monster in all of us; we do not need to welcome him as a houseguest.

• Family is like a blanket; it can keep you warm, or it can suffocate you.

• Death itself is an unevent; you will not become a rabbit, or a toad, or a cockroach.