Letter from Boston
Overabundance
By MASAKO YAMADA
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あまりに満ち足りた誕生日
16日に26歳の誕生日を迎えた雅子さんは、その週末を2つの行事で祝いました。一つは食べきれないほどのデザートを作り、友人をもてなした自宅でのデザートパーティー。もう一つは掃除してもしきれないほどの大量のごみの処理を手伝ったチャールズ川の清掃ボランティアです。
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I decided to have a dessert party for my birthday this year. For the past few years, I
have made dinner for my guests, but I chose to have this kind of party because I wanted
to spend more time socializing, and less time running to and from the refrigerator
and stove.
The good thing about cakes and cookies is that they can be made well ahead of time
and be left out without worrying about the cold foods getting warm or the hot foods
getting cold. I didn't want the party to be too boisterous and I thought a tea party
would inspire people to behave.
About 30 people showed up at the party, so it was still quite an ordeal. Many
people brought bottles of wine as gifts but not many people drank alcohol, so things were definitely under control. The party had a very lively, conversational feel to it
and I'm convinced that it's partly because people were not too busy getting drunk.
I invited friends from my different social circles and it seems that they got along well. As a matter of fact, the guests got along so well with each other, I didn't
have a chance to speak to many of them.
I admit that I might have gone a bit overboard in preparing for the party. Even
though I didn't have to do too much work at the last minute, I worked for an entire
evening the day before to prepare all the desserts.
I wanted a good selection of cake flavors, so I made a lemon cake, banana cake and
carrot cake. I wanted some things people could nibble with their fingers, so I made
coconut macaroons, ginger cookies and chocolate candies. I wanted some creamy
desserts, so I made tiramisu, rice pudding and key lime pie.
I also wanted to make an "interactive" dessert like crepes with a fruit topping,
but it would have been too much trouble to flip dozens of pancakes, so I just poured
crepe batter into a cake pan, baked it and then poured the topping over the whole
thing.
By the time I was finished, the kitchen table was completely covered with desserts and I
felt a little bit sick.
It's ironic that just the day before, I spent the day collecting garbage off the
surface of a river. I worked as a volunteer to help clean up the Charles River as a
part of the Earth Day events.
I had expected the "Charles River cleanup" to involve a chatty walk along the bank
with other volunteers while picking up stray bits of garbage here and there. What I
saw was people wading in waist-deep water wearing rubber pants and raking garbage
off the surface of the river.
We worked on one of the tributaries that runs into the Charles. Because the flow
of water is so bad, garbage tends to collect in one spot. That is the spot we worked
on. The water was like sewage. Smells of urine and alcohol were mixed in with the
smell of rotting leaves and branches.
The boldest volunteers waded into the water and raked the stuff toward the shore,
and the rest of us collected the garbage in plastic bags. There were a lot of large
branches mixed in with the garbage that we had to separate before we could put the
smaller stuff into bags.
The selection of items covering the water definitely surpassed the selection of
items on my dessert table: plastic bags full of garbage, alcohol bottles, drink bottles,
spray paint cans, a whipped cream can (people get high on the gas), a whole bundle of
newspapers, lots of shoes, different kinds of balls, a dental device used to
straighten teeth, condom packets, plastic vials, packaging material for boxes and a
number of dead animals. Needless to say, I felt quite sick witnessing the entire
"buffet."
It made me angry to think that people could throw things into the river without
thinking about it and that the state couldn't hire anybody to clean it up, but I was
inspired by my peers who worked so hard. A lot of the volunteers worked the entire
time without a real meal or break. The truth is that the work was quite addictive and
it was satisfying to see a considerably cleaner river in the end.
I experienced two very basic kinds of satisfaction this weekend. Not a bad way to
celebrate one's 26th birthday.
Shukan ST: April 28, 2000
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