Fortune Cookies

A less than hospitable waiter placed our slightly extravagant bill on the table. Temporarily ignoring it, five hands made a mad grab for the small pile of fortune cookies that had appeared on the table. Fortune cookies are really nothing special. They aren’t even Chinese, I recall being disappointed to learn of their American origin in my freshman year of high school. The obvious appeal of the small treat is of course the fortune within, but fortunes now seem to have developed an attitude which detracts from what little appreciation one can have of fortune cookies.

“The greatest danger could be your stupidity.” I don’t remember who received this tiny piece of “wisdom” but I do recall a communal sense of insult. It was funny, really funny actually, to be so maligned by a tiny scrap of paper shoved inside of a cookie. Together we discussed how fortune cookies have really deteriorated over the years, slicing apart whoever was responsible for the decline as though said person was a dirty politician.

We were disappointed in the fortune but thinking about it, I suppose fortune cookies are letdowns more often then not. Anyone who relies on the “lucky numbers” is almost sure to be letdown, a person who expects a sound piece of philosophy is unlikely to receive such and again the cookie tastes kind of like a stale cracker. I am a fan of the “Speak Chinese” vocabulary word now featured on most fortunes, but it doesn’t make up for all the other sub par elements of contemporary fortune cookies. One can only hope that some innovation in the field will be developed to save the ebbing breed. If not, what little luster remains in the tiny packages may completely fade.