Almost everyone is familiar with the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Appearances can be deceiving. Today I had the pleasure of seeing a master of deception at work. Windows. Walls. Stairs. Doors. One would assume all of these contents make up a building. A building made of wood and stone. But alas, what I am describing is a cake. Made of sugar and effort. Duff Goldman, otherwise known as the “Ace of Cakes” changes the perspective of appearances. I was overwhelmed by the dedication and vision it took to create a cake that was identical to the humanities building. Every wooden curve, turned into icing, every foundation made of sweet mouthwatering cake.
Upon first viewing this exhibit, I wondered what I could take from it, other than a craving for sugar. I soon realized that making a cake to look like a building, is exactly how we should view our own lives. First impressions are often hard to change. I feel that on my part, my first impression of Baltimore was similar to my view of the cake when I first entered the room. I saw a building, not a cake. Not everything is as it seems. You cannot judge on outward appearances, but on the contents. Baltimore on the surface my appear to have its problems, but if you look closer into the real contents of Baltimore, you will find a rich culture, with all the satisfaction of a delicious cake. Baltimore has pride, and Baltimore has truth. Baltimore is not afraid to be raw, Baltimore is not afraid to break boundaries and go beyond expectations society has put upon it. Baltimore is certainly not the Inner Harbor appearance most people assume accounts for the rest of the county.
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a perfect example of how outward appearances are not always what is important in life, and how they are not always a true indication of a person’s worth. The story tells a mother and her two daughters. One has been terribly scarred in a fire, while the other is popular and beautiful. Maggie, who was burned is described as a girl who “will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe”. While Dee, seen as the favorite is described as a girl who “wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit somebody gave me. She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation to shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was.” The mother describes that she finds it hard to relate to either daughter, as she herself is a bulky woman, who is not afraid to get her hands dirty. The story is centered around Dee visiting home with her new husband. The mother and Maggie find that Dee has changed her name to Wangero. A conflict almost immediately arises when Wangero asks her mother for some of the quilts that her grandmother made for her. The mother explains that the quilts are in fact for Maggie. Wangero feels that Maggie will not appreciate them, and will merely use them. The mother realizes that it is Maggie that she can relate to. Maggie understands that memories are not merely to be looked at from afar, but are to be taken in, embraced and appreciated. Just how a building can be appreciated for its outward appearances, it is the contents that need to be appreciated, not merely the exterior.
Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”, in only two lines conveys a deep understanding of people. The poem states “The apparition of these faces in the crowd/ Petals on a wet, black bough”. Having ridden the subway in New York more times than I can count, I was completely entranced by this poets description. As you sit waiting for your train to go in, it is completely overwhelming to see the hundreds of people passing by. To think that every person passing by has their own thoughts, and their own lives is a concept that is very hard to grasp. Pound describes this perfectly in the line “Petals on a wet, black bough.” The diction of the words wet and black give the impression of a dark wet subway, in a dark and wet world. When one thinks of petals, one usually thinks of a beautiful flower. By using petal’s in this way, the reader is to understand that while we are all petals on the flower of life, it can be beautiful even when it seems dark and overwhelming. When one typically thinks of a subway, one does not think of beauty and life. Similarly to when you bite into a building, you do not expect cake.
Seeing the dedication and time put into the cake in the shape of the humanities building truly impressed me. One typically thinks a cake as something you should eat, but Duff Goldman shows that cake can be an art form. Back in New York, I worked in Westchester Counties number one bakery. Similar to Duff Goldman we would craft cakes into objects and designs one would never assume to be cakes. Golf balls, fire trucks, purses, skateboards, guitars, all transformed into an edible delight. You can make life what you want it. A building does not have to be made of wood, what may appear to be a building may in reality be a cake. If I have learned anything at Loyola, it has been to not act on first impressions, and to always give people second chances. Things are not necessarily how they seem.
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