Is there chocolate cake in the afterlife?

 

I don't think I'm ever going to stop pondering the nature of what we call life and death. At least not in any foreseeable time frame.

I have another routine or ritual which I can't say works 100% but since I started doing it, I've noticed a difference, so I have to give it partial credit. Before going to bed I put on my wedding ring. When falling asleep I beg and plead for Sharon to visit me in my dreams. I don't always remember if I dream, but since I started doing this, maybe I have one dream or so a week where I see Sharon's face or talk to her.

Last night I dreamed we were attending a type of event put on by some fashion designer type people. It's not my usual scene, so I don't even know how to describe it. They were selling a whole couture package: clothing, accessories, but mostly, an image. It was very hoity-toity, but in a modern boho/glam rock/indie/punk/goth kind of fusion. Lots of basic blacks, nothing over the top, but nothing off limits as far as elements.

It was a big ball, with dancing, a stage/runway, with announcing of things going on and refreshments being served. Among the items being dispensed in quantity was, of all things, chocolate cake. Among the mostly grey, black and otherwise darkly clad guests was Sharon, in her wedding dress, not the least bit out of place. She was kind of running around like the belle of the ball and mostly wanting to get at the chocolate cake.

I followed her around, enjoying seeing her having a good time. At one point she made her way to the chocolate cake table and carved out two huge slices, one for me and one for her. Someone made a comment as to, "Is she going to eat both of them?"

"No," I said, "I think one's for me."

We sat down together and I couldn't help noticing that she had chocolate cake smeared head to toe on her hair, face and dress. She seemed rather proud of that fact and wanted me to take her picture. I pulled out my digital camera, the one I use in my real every day life, and took a picture. I know it was the same camera because the first picture was without a flash. I have to manually set it to "autoflash," which I did.

I woke up soon afterward with my familiar constellation of body ailments, back in this world. But for a time my heart carried a little of the fullness from the dream state. Feeling somewhat tethered to that place and emotional state (and even the chocolate cake), I wanted to get back. I had no luck, my sleep allocation had run out.

---

For some reason, when I sleep more than a couple of hours, my body stops maintaining certain autonomic functions. My blood pressure is so low that peripheral things such as eye lubrication ceases, along with skin hydration. Maybe my body is thinking, "This is it, turn off the lights and the water, there's nobody home."

So, in the afterlife, can one still enjoy chocolate cake? Is it one of those pleasures, like sex, that requires a physical body? Which begs the question: if not, then what the hell kind of heaven would it be? Two things Sharon would not be happy without, in any kind of heaven, would be sex and chocolate cake.

So, I find myself living more in my dreams than I do my daily life. Or at least finding them more enjoyable. Whether you can call it life or not, I don't know. But is the Sharon that I am encountering in my dreams an actual conscious entity or just a fabrication of my own mind? I'd love it if she could tell me or show me something new that would indicate that she's still thinking for herself and isn't just some robotic projection from my memory.

So I'm going to keep begging and pleading and wearing the wedding ring for the time being.