I met a friend at a café even though I don’t drink coffee. He ordered a croissant, which was coated with confectioners sugar.

Looking around the café, I noticed nearly everyone had ordered some similar sweet baked products—donuts, cupcakes, and so on. No one was eating anything with nutrition besides calories. The products looked like they gave pleasure—a moment away from the challenges of life. Eating this candy, makes you think about anything else. An escape.

Though I normally associate cafés with coffee, this one seemed to supply as much sugar as coffee. Probably most of them do these days.

I couldn’t help but think of an opium den. Why is refining the powder that makes you feel good and your troubles go away illegal from poppy but legal from sugar cane?

Declining his offer for a bite, I felt like someone passing on sampling a drug in a room where everyone was on that drug.

I don’t know how the people indulging in it felt.

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