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The Rotten Banana: The relief in taking life as it comes

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by forgiven10, Aug 31, 2011.

  1. forgiven10

    forgiven10 Silver IL'ite

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    Well without beating around the bush or weaving alluring introductions, I will get straight to the message of this blog. I hope every blog entry I pen communicates a message to its reader(s). And I hope the message of this one is in some way relevant to your life and that God would bring good out of your reading this.

    Since the past few weeks I have been extremely busy. (that would explain the inactivity in this blog) Not only have I been busy physically but also, mentally. This is what I mean: when perfectionists (I consider myself one though some others may disagree with me saying that I used to be one but now have become a second-rate perfectionist. Oh whatever- I still feel like one so I'll go with my opinion. ;-)) begin one task or more, they expect to see progress/success in all those undertaken tasks. Should any one task fail to meet their expectations, they start becoming downhearted, resentful and at worst, even suicidal. They start blaming and complaining. (I'm sure there exist controlled perfectionists- the composed ones- but I'm talking about myself here so I'm allowed to be as critical as I want to ;-)) Now obviously, this could lead to damaged moods, broken relationships, lost jobs, and overall unhappiness in life. Let's ask a simple question at this point. What is a failure? What is a success? It's subjective, right? Different people would define the above terms differently- in their own terms. However, I believe that nature has a universal lesson with a universal moral that we all, irrespective of our gender, ethnicity, race, nationality, and age, could benefit from learning. And this lesson was taught to me today by a rotten banana which was lying in the fruit basket on my kitchen counter.

    A good 90% of the poor banana's surface area was brown as brown could be. There were a few yellow spots left but surely not enough to risk eating the whole fruit. So, without a second thought I picked it up and tossed it into the kitchen trash can. I walked away - no big event, right? Well, this time I felt something as I walked away. Believe it or not, I felt bad for the banana tree which produced that particular banana which I just threw. I have never seen this tree, poured water for it, or nourished it but here I was - I was feeling profoundly sad for that tree. I thought to myself, "So, this little banana fruit which a tree produced carefully over a period of time with lots of work, goes into my trashcan?!" I felt like if the tree has speech it would ask me, "Hey! Do you realize how much I had to work in order to bear that banana fruit on my branch?! How can you just throw my hard work away- that makes me so sad. Am I useless to you? Do I live only to feed you sometimes and other times to be slapped in the face?" Now please spare yourself from thinking that I'm some sort of psycho person who hears strange voices. Here's the crux of the matter- It is a 100% true that some tree worked very hard in order to produce that banana. But it is not true that someone has to eat it. Not every banana that gets produced will get eaten. Whether we like it or not, waste does and will exist. So what's my point? This is my point: When magnificent nature itself meekly allows many of her products to go waste, how much more should we puny little humans humble accept a few "wastes" (read failures, disappointments etc) in our life? We feel like (atleast I feel like) EVERYTHING we set our hands to MUST prosper. We bother God with a 1000 requests everyday. But do we realize that life is not just about "me." In the grand scheme of things, there is loss and gain. And the important thing is to remember that you and I are a part of this world- we are not the center of attraction. Its okay to embrace hurts, disappointments, and failures. But does it end there? Of course not. Just because some silly human threw one small banana away, does the banana tree stop producing fruit?? Surely not. :) In the same way, each of us ought to know why we are working and for whose sake we are working. Then we will be able to take all things in the stride and live our parts for the betterment of this world. Like the trees, plants, and animals do. Without a care, and without malice. They sure know how to live life as it comes. That's something I need to learn from them.

    So next time when someone or something hurts me, or something doesn't go as I planned- I'll just think that that was "my rotten banana" which God decided to toss away into the global trashcan.

    :)


    Have a wonderful day!
     
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  2. hridhaya

    hridhaya Gold IL'ite

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    Thanks for writing such a nice article.It sure boosted me.

    you made that "rotton banana" really proud of itself for inspiring you to write such a thoughtful article :)
     
  3. forgiven10

    forgiven10 Silver IL'ite

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    Thanks Hridhaya! :) I'm so happy that this article boosted you- because that was my purpose. Its so nice to see you here and I hope you will keep gracing my blog with your comments! You are most welcome here anytime!
     
  4. sreemanavaneeth

    sreemanavaneeth Gold IL'ite

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    Hai forgiven,

    A very good mind thought and well compared and compromised writeup.As you hve mentioned we should also think if we are planning to do anything and try to finish it good by not wasting our time, energy to get 100% result out of it. If we could not the entire thing will go for a task and like a rotton banana we have to trash it out.Well said the points.
     
  5. Dhaanika

    Dhaanika Gold IL'ite

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    I smiled as I read it, its such an apt analogy. And the certainty and security in giving oneself over to life and to nature as it comes, reminds me of this fave poem of mine (James Wright, The branch will not break...)
    --
    "... I try to waken and greet the world once again

    In a pine tree,
    A few yards from my window sill,
    a brilliant blue jay is springing up and down, up and down
    on a branch.
    I laugh as I see him abandon himself,
    to entire delight, for he knows as well as I do
    that the branch will not break."

    --

    Its kinda strange that humans apparently with all their intellect, and cognition and curiosity and so on are the ones who struggle to be happy, or calm, or feel secure and so on, other animals beside us know how to just be.
     
  6. forgiven10

    forgiven10 Silver IL'ite

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    Thanks for your comments Dhaanika! Those lines are really nice and I think the poet put my message across poetically. :)
     
  7. raji2678

    raji2678 Gold IL'ite

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    Very thought-provoking article
     
  8. forgiven10

    forgiven10 Silver IL'ite

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  9. vaishnavisri

    vaishnavisri Senior IL'ite

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    great post. actually before reading ur article, my mood was not that great. now u gav a glucon-d to me. thank u
     
  10. forgiven10

    forgiven10 Silver IL'ite

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    Am so happy to hear that! :)
     

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