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4.27.03 Oranges
I passed by a bowl of oranges which had been sitting on the kitchen counter for the last couple of weeks. I had passed by these oranges many times since they originally appeared, and I meant to partake of them on several occasions, but I just never did. When I looked at them today, they seemed unappealing. Some of them had brown spots on their rinds and the skin was just a little shrivelled. My first instinct was to throw the oranges out. That's what we americans normally do with old, unappealing, seemingly unusable produce. However, I try to second guess my thoughts, so I cut one of the oranges open to see if it was any good on the inside. Interestingly enough, this particular orange looked quite normal on the inside. In fact, I would say it looked quite succulent. So I juiced it, along with the 10 other or so oranges that had been sitting on the kitchen counter. When I finished extracting every drop of orange that I could from these brown fruits, I tasted the juice. It was sweet. In fact, I've juiced oranges before and the juice is usually a little too sour, but this juice was rich and not sour at all. I tossed the rinds in the composter. What a waste if I had thrown those oranges away. Now, I have juice to nourish my body, and in a few months the rinds will have contributed to some nice, dark and fragrant soil, which could nourish a lavender plant, which will in turn provide me with my favorite scent, which will soothe me in times of stress. Having less stress, I can help someone or do something productive. The circle is complete...but I speculate. We live in a disposable society. When we deem something used, useless, or old, we just throw it away with no thought of how that object could be used in another way. My parents had some african guests stay at their house, and my mom was preparing a salad. As is usually done in this culture, she threw away the stem of the head of salad. The person from Africa was surprised at this. They said that in their culture, they would not even think of throwing a portion of food away. They would not think of it because the practice of conservation is ingrained in their culture. It is the opposite here. We would not think about using society considers waste. The practice of waste is ingrained in our culture. In american culture, people are treated no differently than the food we eat. What is fresh, shiny and new is valued highly, and what is spotty, shriveled and old is considered useless. We treat people with disabilities as though they are a burden on society. We treat the elderly as though they have outlasted their usefulness. They are like the oranges that have been sitting on the counter all these days. We pass them by and give them a fleeting thought, only to continue on their way, thinking "I will find use for that some other time". Or, worse yet, we throw them away. We do not recognize how succulent these human beings truly are. If we could inspect beyond their flesh, we would find colorful, vibrant being with a lot of flavor to add to society. What stories they have to tell! What gifts they have to give us! Every human is precious and delicious. We just have to stop before we throw them away and think for a minute to realize the vast usefulness they have to us. Every orange mingled together makes for some sweet and delicious juice. |
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