Fruitcake for Christmas? The Congressman Changed My Mind

The fruitcake, for Christmas.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Oh, really, no, too many of them over the years, too many of them never eaten. Really, no, no thank you."

Well, no, now wait a minute.

Never say never.

What changed my mind is an essay written by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, who penned a piece this holiday season entitled, The Zen of Fruitcake.

"I am eating fruitcake handmade by a congressman," my daughter posted Dec 23 on Facebook.

Apparently, she knows someone who knows someone who received a fruitcake from Blumenauer, who reported that this year alone, his annual baking ritual produced more than 200 fruitcakes.

(I know this because I linked to the essay from my daughter's Facebook page.)

As Blumenauer put it, "The Zen of the Fruitcake includes far more than the “high” I get from baking." He talks about "the entire process" of production, from selecting the "critical ingredients" and baking tins to the "physiological connection" he gets from the "mix, sort, sift, ladle and bake."

"I get lost in the rhythm, my mind is released to think great thoughts or reflect on the mundane," the congressman noted.

One of those thoughts struck home to me, a writer, and to me, a citizen, and I found it refreshing to hear a congressman talk about his work as a process, and not as a partisan battle.

"Much of what I’m involved with is simply words….words I read, hear, speak, write, and interpret," Blumenauer noted. "I spend my time in persuasion, developing ideas, and sharing them with others. It is important work and I have no regrets, but at the end of the day, I really don’t make anything."

That stands in contrast to "carpenters, nurses, farmers, or factory workers," he noted, who "make something or deliver a product." Or, to people who "make the world better in concrete ways," such as reflected in the achievements of kids, who "blossom in front of their teacher’s eyes as a result of their efforts."

"My fruitcake at least was something real," Blumenauer concluded.

Then, the connection, with the delivery itself, a chance to "exchange Christmas greetings" and to offer a "salute to an earlier era."

For Blumenauer, that "salute" is to an uncle in Texas, who introduced him to the fruitcake that he could like: not the "dark, thick, nutty concrete-textured fruitcake," that most people don't care for, but to a fruitcake that was of the "light, cakey variety." In other words, "moist, not too dense, and had no nuts."

Pretty much a good assessment of Blumenauer's writing style, in a piece that I plan to read anew each Christmas as my own holiday ritual.

As for the fruitcake itself, which Blumenauer said he bakes using a recipe that approximates what he remembered from his youth?

"I never had fruitcake, so my expectations were pretty low," my daughter said. "But it was a pleasant surprise, and I couldn't stop eating it."

There you go, fruitcake, for Christmas.