Imperfect Produce

Like bananas going bad and ultimately fated to be bread, we are all imperfect produce.

We begin young and green, progress to bright yellow and taut skinned. Then we age, developing brown spots and soft sections. Finally we overripen and turn to mush, ready to be made into something entirely new. It's not a completely dark analogy and of course the time frame for a banana is much more brief - it has only a few days while we have lifetimes - and being just this side of overripened has its advantages as unlike a banana, we are granted the grace to reflect, evaluate, change and prepare. We can, if we choose, reverse the process of going bad.

We are all flawed and that's what makes us interesting, my daddy would say, Who would care if we were perfect? He believed in the innate goodness of people, saw us as imperfect people in an imperfect world, mostly trying to do the right things. It was not, sad to say, a view I shared while growing up, and one I do not always share even now. I have my mother's dark side, being inclined to see the worst in myself and others, and seeing little hope for redemption. I am a natural cynic and have no faith in the popular belief that People Change - circumstances change, relationships change, and people adapt superficially but their core beings remain intact, they continue to be whatever they are. We may grow and change faces as needed, learn to alter our tone or modify our behavior, we may even conform and cave in, but we still are what we are, perhaps what we have learned or are destined to be. Unlike the poor banana, we choose the roads we travel and the company we keep. Most of us choose to stay what we become despite all the alternatives. In some, this is positive, good, and strong - stubborness can be a virtue seen in the light of temptation. In others, it can be dark and dangerous - obstinacy in the face of common sense can be foolish.

Green to yellow to brown to bread. In the cosmic sense, I wonder if fruit didn't get the better deal.