“Just Desserts or Just Deserts?”
February 12, 2023
“Just Desserts” is a bakery located near my neighborhood, and the name is both the truth and a play on words. The truth is, the bakery only sells desserts. The play on words is that the name is derived from the idiom, “Just Deserts” (note the spelling), which is an expression that means “to get one’s reward”. Many people misspell it as “just desserts” because it seems more appropriate to associate the meaning of the phrase with something sweet and delicious, like the reward of ice cream (dessert) after eating all your brussels sprouts. The pronunciation of desserts and deserts is so close.
However, the true meaning of the idiom is that “just deserts” can be punishment, or even an unwanted consequence of a particular behavior. People get what they deserve, whether they want it or not. And in my neighborhood, not only do I have the Just Desserts bakery, but I also had feuding neighbors who believed they could dish out Just Deserts to each other.
My neighbors were at least a generation apart, and from the time the “younger generation” moved two doors down from the “older generation”, enemy lines were quickly drawn. There was little in life about which they both agreed, and it quickly became a hobby to make life miserable for each other. However, at the center of the battlefield was a clearly marked parking spot which belonged to the older neighbor who suffered some physical disabilities which could result in an easy stumble or fall. Even so, the younger neighbor delighted in seizing that spot whenever possible, and it was with great satisfaction and sweet victory that a parking spot could be plundered.
This neighborhood “battle” continued until the younger neighbor relocated. However, right before her move, a stretch of new concrete was poured in front of the older neighbors’ home. While the cement was still wet, I witnessed the younger neighbor scratch something in the wet cement. Before walking away from her cement graffiti, the younger neighbor stood up to admire her work and then walked away with a satisfied smug, the type one has when one feels someone got what they deserved – their not so sweet, just deserts!
What was scrawled in the cement? A written attack, along with an autograph, was forever engraved in the portion of the sidewalk where the neighbor would step every single day. Now and forever more, or at least until the cement fades or is re-poured, these words will be “underfoot” for the older neighbor.
Unlike the local bakery, it is not our business to serve just deserts to anyone, or to delight in the mishaps of another. Clearly the wisdom of Proverbs 24:17 was not on the mind of the cement artist,
“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,”