Circles around a (st)ring. You can eat an “obwarzanek” in one of two ways - you either have to bite it off the string, thus destroying it, and taking away its nature, of being crunchy and circular and perfect – or you can untie the string and let all the “obwarzanki” loose – thus separating their unified chain of being.
They taste delicious, so once you have had one, you cant help yourself from biting off another (they also contain poppy seeds, which Im sure have something to do with their addictive nature). Before you know it, you are left with a piece of string in your hand, and a feeling of remorse - much the same as when you eat a donut, and all that is left behind is an empty space where something amazing there once was. You have to physically destroy the comfort and ‘being’ of the “obwarzanek” for its purpose to be fulfilled.
Its quite a metaphor – that to fully comprehend something, one actually has to destroy it, in the process of absorbing its knowledge.
Relationships come to mind. The process of being enamoured with another being, whether sentient or not, usually leads to this parasitic process of covetousness and consumption. Once the relationship is over, the object of desire is usually altered to some degree in a physical/spiritual/intangible way, sometimes to the extent of obliteration (whether they are aware of this or not, is another subject all on its own). This metaphor can even be applied to environments. Think Romeo and Juliette. Think Global Warming. This needs more research…