Frying Eggs

The eggs are frying in the pan and as I climb up on the chair to get a photo I think, “Ernest Hemingway did pretty well writing about big game hunting in Africa, and I’m going to write about frying eggs.” But, when I get right down to it, I would rather fry eggs than big game hunt and the best writing comes from what we know.

After breakfast I call Direct TV. I speak with McKenzie. From the tone and inflection in his voice, his ancestry goes directly back to Africa. He is located in El Segundo, California which is crammed up against LAX. When I ask him, “how are you this morning?” and he says “ok,” there is a little quiver in his voice. He’s hanging in there. It’s about 6:30 Pacific Time and he’s on the job. Living in LA on the salary a guy makes answering a phone has to be tough.

McKenzie sits in a cubicle all day, stares at a computer, has a headset with a little speaker stuffed in one ear and takes care of people’s satellite tv customer service needs. Customer service is demanding work. I know. I hope he has a picture of his family or his dog or something for some relief. I ask him to have Direct TV stop sending me junk mail and he takes care of it. McKenzie is a King of Kings. Most likely he comes from a people who spent their lives out in the open. Hunters and gatherers. They took what they needed. Life is never easy but I bet when someone asked his great, great, great grandfather how he was in the morning there was no quiver in his response. And then we bwanas came along and killed wholesale for the romance, the fun of it. For souvenirs of our achievement.

This is where the eggs come in. There was a time I got in the car every morning and drove into town and worked in an office. It was a hustle, it was customer service and it took everything I had. During that period I woke up a full two hours before I had to get out the door. This was my best time of the day and I took it. I have always loved fried eggs over medium, and for the longest time had them only on rare occasion when I went out for breakfast. They are tricky to cook and if you screw up, well, you end up with a mess and so I would skip right to scrambled. It was during that office work period however, I decided to learn to cook eggs over medium. After some trial and a lot of error, finally I got it. Hint: just use butter.

Now, every once in a while I’ll cook eggs over medium for myself. To sit down to those little beauties on the plate, with a fresh grind of pepper and some toast with (more) butter and strawberry jam… wow, what a wonderful start to the day. And it’s really not about the eggs. It’s about doing something simple and good and taking care.

Gordon Bunker