The Burger Oracle

You find yourself at a gathering in someone’s backyard, surrounded by paper towels and music and laughter and the smell of something cooking to just the right char on the grill. You’re seated in front of a platter of burgers, assembled moments ago and getting ready to go on plates. There’s a variety on offer and you’re prodding at one with a fork to see if it’s beef or black bean or maybe turkey when the burger spontaneously explodes outward and flies off the stack.

You watch it spinning in mid-air, disassembled by force and gravity, with sunlight shining from behind. You can’t explain it, but you know you need to keep all of your attention on this burger as it falls back to Earth. Something about it is important to you right here, right now.

You watch the burger in slow mo as it twists in on itself, somehow still maintaining a burger-like appearance as its pieces go flying from its center. And that’s when you see it, amidst the airborne lettuce and tomato and pickles: an ancient burger spirit, calmly following the bun down to land in the grass by your feet.

You have found The Burger oracle, and it has a story to share with you today.

The Burger oracle says:

It’s funny, isn’t it, how a burger is a burger is a burger. It doesn’t even matter what its ingredients are necessarily. The patty could be beef or turkey or black bean or mushroom or filet o fish. The bun could be white bread or whole wheat or sesame-coated or brioche or two thick slabs of Texas toast. Cheese on a burger can be anything from American to cheddar to provolone to mozzarella to blue cheese to whatever that cheese is over there, throw it on. The toppings could be ketchup and mustard and pickles, or carrots and cucumber and vinegar, or bacon and barbecue sauce and jalapeños, or whatever combination of condiments and produce your heart desires.

And still, through its endless variations, we recognize a delicious burger when we see one.

You are the very same. Today you may be sweet with a slight tang. Tomorrow you may be comforting and easygoing. The day after you might bring the heat. Next week you may show up with a whole new twist no one has seen before.

Some people really don’t get how you can move like this. How there so many pieces to you, and yet you are still a coherent whole. These people really want for you to just be one thing. What do you mean you’re all of it? What do you mean that on any given day you could choose the lentil patty OR the tuna OR even the pastrami and any one variation would all just be part of the whole that is you?

Some people like to be able to peg others in one way and have that be the truth forever and always. They like to put a neat and tidy box around their definition of you to keep it simple and comfy in their minds. And you defy the charbroiled eff out of that. Because you check that box they try to keep you in, sure. And then you also check the box next to it and the one next to that.

You know how at some burger joints, you get a paper with all of the options and a pencil to check the boxes for what you want on yours? You check all the boxes without ever allowing yourself to be boxed in to just one. You have access to all the fixins, and which ones you choose vary by what you’re in the mood for that day.

The people who try to make you feel bad for your multitudinous nature are the same type of people who like to complain about a bánh mì burger not belonging on the menu. They have a singular idea of what you should be, and they have a singular idea about what a burger should be, too. They have a singular idea about a lot of things, really.

But not you. You like to take all of your multiple ingredients and see how they’ll work as a whole. What kind of taste they make when they’re blended together this way or mixed together that other way. And you adapt your elements for the situation around you. You can read a room and know what combination you want to show up with for the occasion. You’re giving the Burger of the Day from Bob’s Burgers. It’s endlessly variable to you, to let all parts of yourself flow through into the whole. And it’s endlessly interesting to anyone whose adventurous palate and expansive nature can match yours.

You have learned something it takes others lifetimes to understand: It’s all you - organically, naturally, genuinely - and that’s what makes it cohesive. None of it is disjointed. None of it seems like something or someone else. It all works, it’s all unified, it’s all part of the same essence. The through line does not exist in your exterior - the through line is you. No matter what form you take on a particular day. No matter which style you choose in a particular time and place. No matter what flavor of energy flows through you in a particular moment.

For the right people - your fellow adventurous and expansive ones - your endless variations are a source of joy and fun and interest. They want to know: What combination will you be trying out today? What’s the new sauce you’re experimenting with? What twist are you putting on the original recipe this time?

It’s exciting to them, your continual ability to spin up something new, to show up differently than before yet still be 100% recognizable as yourself.

The people who belong at your table love what’s on your menu: Endless variety, all cohesively you.

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About the Artist
Bailey Lewis is an experiential storytelling artist (MFA, University of South Carolina) who combines words, images, and reimagined materials to create intuitive story experiences. Her art has been exhibited and published internationally, and she is the author of award-winning stories which have been featured in The Wigleaf Top 50 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. 

Visit the Bailey Sends Word Story Studio site to see more of Bailey’s work.