happy or sad

i walked into work this morning with a peice of chocolate cake from my brother's birthday dinner last night. no one was around; i was expecting eager office mates ready with plastic forks. i turns out that a co-worker's son had died in a car accident last night. he was in his early 20's. what can you say? nothing. this co-worker had not come in to work, but rather we found out from a voicemail. everyone was bummed out this morning. but people move on quickly, when it's not their son. by lunch they were joking in the hallway. but that's just how it is. around 3:00 i offered the cake around and i got two takers. i felt like i was helping assuage everyone's gloom a little bit. cakes can be happy or sad.