Apparently, or so I was informed last evening, that ‘I cannot eat the cake and have it too’.. Now this wasn’t something I hadn’t heard before. These strange terms have plagued my life for over 40 years now…
I didn’t have the courage to question a lot of these strange phrases early in my life and that was my folly.
I mean, this just didn’t make sense to me, or probably it was my lack of love for Wren and Martin and such texts of eminence. Learning English was bad enough and just when you thought you are reasonably proficient, you hear of all this.
Now from what I figured, one of the earliest uses of this phrase ( or idiom or whatever !) was is in a letter written on 14 March 1538 from Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, to Thomas Cromwell, where he wrote “a man can not have his cake and eat his cake”.
It is important to understand that in the year 1538, cakes would have been fairly primitive and unsubstantiated with oodles of chocolate indulgence and such heavenly ingredients..
It is also critical to examine the fact that there is no evidence of this being akin to what we believe it means today. Now, it’s a different matter that yours truly doesn’t know what it means, save the fact that it is a phrase that has unnecessarily jumbled up words to confuse us from time immemorial. Year 1538 to year 2017 is bad enough for those of you who haven’t figured.
It is completely illogical and unnecessary in life. In fact it is quite against the basic principles of understanding.
Why can’t I have my cake and eat it too ? Think of it.. It is a simple fact that unless you have a cake, you can’t be eating it in the first place. This is ample evidence enough of the folly.
Now, it honestly doesn’t make a jolly difference to me or to the rest of the world as to who this man is of what the Duke of Norfolk meant when he wrote this. That is completely his problem and for all you know, he may have been diabetic.
Now, that is the only explanation for this nonsense.
Believe me, this is the tip of the iceberg. We have been inundated with such rubbish for decades and we are doing sweet nothing to move on in life. It is time we revolt and stop our reverence for all this gibberish that was used liberally by some Duke or the other.
We must have our cake and eat it too. Cakes are meant to be had and eaten. Bakers wouldn’t exist otherwise and for the diabetic Duke, let him continue turning in his grave..
For now, I rest my case.
Jd also consults in Consumer Neuroscience and Neuromarketing, both of which are integral to his brand interventions.
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