Like you, I usually have my breakfast while scanning the newspaper. A lifelong habit that can be either good or bad. This morning it was bad. Very bad...!
A sunny, silent morning all by myself. Time to be a little reflective before opening the early edition. Scanning the lush greenery outside my window, listening to the harmonies of nature's original tweeters, and snatching a whiff of garden flowers, this breakfaster was at sudden peace with his world.
As I started to peel the banana for my cereal, I was being so reflective it made me think how life is also a matter of peeling layers. Layer by layer down to the core of the person or the problem at hand. Nice thought, Jack...! How many times you've discovered this to be so true. Never judge your banana or your world with just the first glance.
But life can turn on a dime, can't it? Or at least on a peel.
First, my beautiful yellow banana turned out to be mealy dark mush inside. Damn! Just then one of those enchanting tweeters smashed into the window by mistake, and fell stunned to the ground. Oh no! Next the biggest turn of them all. I turned over the paper, and the first article is one of those health reports telling you what's bad for us. In this case, fruit. You see, they found fruit is good for you but only when it's not bad for you. Arrgh!
This is how your lovely little world can abruptly crater. One moment you're in transcendental harmony with its rhythms. The next, you're in a dissonant minor key of perplexities. Quickly you find yourself reflecting on a very different theme. It's that question you wrestle with each morning as you groggily peek up from your pillows...
....do I really want to leave this dream where I seem to be playing the lead role in a happy technicolor scenario, or do I actually want to get up and take another bit part in the great unpredictable drama of life?
I'm here writing this, so obviously I made the right choice.
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I hate mushy and dark bananas. There is such a short window of time when it is just right. Not to hard and green and not too brown and soft. But take heart, you can turn that mushy piece of garbage into banana bread.
ReplyDeleteI prefer peaches with my cereal and thus am not distracted by the layers of life as I scan a newspaper or listen to local news on TV (as opposed to news from New York on the networks).
ReplyDeleteWell, there we have it fans! Three different answers to the mystery of life >> bananas, peaches or banana bread. When you think about it, one seems just as good as the next!
ReplyDeleteInteresting metaphor. Guess I better enjoy those rare perfectly ripe bananas! They don't come around very often!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a whole philosophy to life to me!!
ReplyDelete