Smells

They say poems, great music, art, literature, take you back to some universal place. They push you beyond the ordinary to a magical place we all share--simple, one.

I believe this.

But do you think this can happen with smells?

In the last week Jonathan has cooked a few fantastic meals. They are meals the boys have never eaten before in their lives. And yet, both times, Theo, who has a pretty impressive palate, and can pick out lemon, basil, nutmeg or olive oil in a dish, said, "I feel like I have tasted this before..."

Is it possible that some smells and tastes are so fundamental, so satisfying, so much a part of our human craving, that we believe we have tasted them before, even if that taste has never crossed our lips?

Do they make us feel that everything is OK, do they feel deeply familiar because there is something divine and universal in them?

What do you think?