As a young professional woman who lives alone, I sometimes struggle to make good use of my groceries. Especially when it is so easy these days to eat out or order in, I sometimes find that the groceries in my fridge go to waste. It happens much more often than I’d like, and I feel terrible because I know there are people in this world who don’t have the luxury of letting food go to waste (BTW: Really sorry about that, Africa!) The food wastage has, however, given me a chance to observe the decay patterns of some common vegetables. And it seems to me at least, that vegetables and people share a few commonalities in the way they respond to stress. (Stress for a vegetable being locked up in a dark and cold box, with little hope of being eaten).
Case Study 1: The Cucumber The cucumber, when fresh, is firm and crispy, cooling and refreshing. A yummy addition to salads or a veggie plate. It’s got a fairly mild taste and is inoffensive to most palates. But if you leave one of these guys in a fridge for too long, you’ll see that they eventually end up dissolving into a gelatinous mass of leaky wetness. At first it might look fine, so quiet an unassuming on the bottom shelf of your fridge. Seemingly saying “I’m just chilling out… couldn’t care less if you use me in your salad tonight. I’ll just hang out until you’re ready.” He looks so comfy and smug. But go to grab it after a week or so, and you’ll see that it squishes easily and leaves a greenish puddle in the bottom of your fridge. Not so cool anymore, eh buddy?
We’re all familiar with the saying ‘cool as a cucumber’ – used to describe people who seem to be able to handle any adversity with a ‘Meh’ kind of attitude. Nothing seems to bother these too-cool types. But I think you may find that people who exude an eerie sense of calm in times of crisis will actually literally fall apart if you reach out to grab them! Just like their veggie counterparts.
Case Study 2: The Carrot Our friend the carrot. Oh so deliciously sweet when fresh! So satisfyingly crunchy! And a wonderful, cheerful, bright orange colour. A favourite of kids and adult snackers alike. When you leave one of these babies for a while, you notice that their once-sweet taste fades with time. Like oh so many young maids who have come out worse for wear over the years, the carrot’s sweetness also diminishes with time. When left in a crisper in the dark for too long, the carrot will start to sprout more than a few unsightly roots. Desperately reaching out in every direction for… something! anything! The poor carrot is blindly grasping at the void around it, hoping to encounter something that might save it.
We’ve all known people who similarly start to grasp at whatever happens to be around when their lives don’t go as well as they’d like. Once sweet, lovely people fall on some hard times (or maybe just slightly less cushy times). Maybe work starts to suck a little more, maybe they can’t seem to lose those last 10 pounds, or their lives just seem a little less awesome than they used to be. What can they do? They must find a quick fix! So they start running around trying anything they can to ’fix’ themselves. But our friend the carrot can attest, shooting out in a hundred different directions sometimes doesn’t bring the salvation one needs.
Case Study 3: Celery To be honest, celery is kind of a boring vegetable. It doesn’t really have a whole lot of flavour… can be chewy and stringy, isn’ t particularly nice looking, and grows out of a root bulb that resembles somebody’s parasitic conjoined twin (ew). Poor celery doesn’t deal with stress well, either. When left alone for a while, it first loses its firmness - becoming a long, flaccid, yellowing stick of un-fun-ness. When celery is having a tough time, you can see it right away. And it makes itself even more unappealing by looking that way. The poor soul.
We’ve all seen people get a little like celery when they’re dealing with big issues or even small ones. They don’t look so good, and it makes it hard to be around them sometimes, too. These people like to make it known when they’re having issues. The problem is, looking all sad and depressed is a downer, man! And for people who are witnessing the suckness of their lives, it’s not exactly an incentive to invite them to the next games night.
Case Study 4: The Onion Oh, onions. The versatile, unsung hero of countless classic dishes. Earthy sweet when slow-cooked. Pleasantly spicy when raw. The star ingredient in possibly one of the best soups of all time! And onions are great under stress. They maintain their appearance if left in a dry spot. Don’t really complain at all. They just put on another layer of protective dry skin… not a huge deal. The world is a disappointing place, might as well put on another layer of armour. When onions have been sitting around for a long time, they don’t turn into a pile of mush; or sprout ridiculous feelers willy nilly in a hundred directions; or change their appearance to convey their suckness. Instead the onion pools all it’s energy into its innermost layer and sprouts a single green shoot out of its head. A concentrated, focused effort in one direction. It’s a champ!
There are very few of us who could respond to worldly pressures in such a calm, calculated approach. Many of us are much more like the onion’s neighbours in the crisper, to be honest. But I would suggest that maybe we should all learn a lesson from the onion and take a more measured approach to dealing with our problems. First, look within, into your innermost layer, for the strength to move forward. Second, put all your energy into a positive action. Third, sheath yourself with a little thicker skin, just in case more hardships await you in the future. And just get on with it!
So in closing, I think we should all try to find our inner onions. And maybe we could all learn to love a little more veg… and the people in our lives who resemble them!
