Foreplay, Tunnels and Lemon Sorbets

If you don’t know where this art is from then shame on you

You wouldn’t shovel a dessert into your mouth right after a main meal would you? Well, I do that all the time actually, but let’s pretend I didn’t just so this analogy works. You need a break, a transition. If the jump between different tastes is too abrupt they meld in sickly ways. Lemon Sorbets are so-called palate cleansers: “a neutral-flavoured food or drink that removes food residue from the tongue allowing one to more accurately assess a new flavour.” This is just one instance, but palate cleansers exist in many places.

In 2010 I found myself on a bus heading to Lake Como. This bus ride lasted quite a few hours. At first you try to maintain dignity, perhaps even read a book, which is fun for about 40 seconds until you want to throw up. Eventually you abandon any pretence of self-composure and melt into the seat hoping that by the time you’re out the rest of the passengers are similarly zombified. The landscape en route struck me - because it was horrendous. Our destination was supposed to be beautiful, but all I could see were sprawling empty towns littered with the ghosts of industry. I got the sense that if the bus stopped we’d be a little too far from… everything.

Then we entered a tunnel.

On the other side was an Eden. Houses from a different time, a lake that simmered or roared as its whim dictated, hugged endlessly by mountains on all sides with colourful hideouts and havens sprinkled like single flowers peeping through a garden lawn. The people seemed at ease (unless they were behind the wheel of a car, then they were unhinged psychos). There was time in the day for… life to happen. I didn’t think of that dead expanse on the other side of the tunnel until the journey back to the airpot at the end of the trip. I was simply too busy slyly partaking of elsewhere.

Sex. I’ve heard it’s really great. But how does one get from not sex to… sex? Well, apparently, with a lot of artfulness (or alcohol, that works too). The difference between a normal state of mind and one possessed by desire is massive, as many ill-conceived (pun intended) decisions over the course of human history will attest to. Flirting and foreplay are a subtle dance towards a very obvious outcome. They’re a gateway, or a suggestively semi-open door.

I think you’re all getting the gist here. Lemon sorbets, tunnels and foreplay can all be palate cleansers of different kinds. Whether it’s removing the taste of a previous meal readying you for the next, wiping your mind’s eye of prior scenery to feel transported on the other side or taking you from being in a neutral state of mind to turned on. To jump swiftly from one side to the other has many issues. In fact, sometimes you won’t even make it to the other side without these things bridging the gap.

This particular line of thought is born out of an idea that came to me a long time ago which I find endlessly fascinating, and rather endearing: one thing is always many things, and many things can be one thing.