Thursday, August 11, 2016

Know your onions

The onion slipped from her hand and headed towards the floor.  Gravity.

But, I didn't hear the thud of the onion landing.  She reached down to the space under the counter and near her knees and extracted the onion.

"Nice save there" I smiled.

"No problems even if it had fallen down.  I feel like it is one of those days when things just don't go smoothly, you know?" she replied.

"At least it didn't fall on your toes."  I meant it because I had picked up a big sized tear-jerker.

"If it had, I would probably go home early" she laughed.

"These are nothing" she added.  And described about somebody who had to undergo a complex spine surgery.

"Oh my god!" I stood with my mouth open.

She nodded her head.  "There are much bigger things to worry about. Who cares about the onion falling."

If only we can all appropriately frame our problems against a proper perspective, and if only we can do that all the time.  But, we don't.

There are plenty of bigger problems that others are worried about.

Think about it this way: We often joke that it is ok to have a drink because it is five o'clock somewhere.  Right?  But, we rarely ever pause to say, for instance, right this second somebody died and that person's family is devastated.  The reality that we seem to overlook is that every second is a case of YOLO.

I went for a walk by the river.  A couple walking with their kid in the stroller greeted me.  People were jogging, biking, walking.  We were all implicitly acknowledging YOLO.

But then, there it was.  From a couple of days ago.  The Nazi swastika, and more.  It had yet to be erased.  Apparently there are also people who believe that they need to do these because, well, you only live once and they have made their mark?

Source

3 comments:

Ramesh said...

Couldn't agree with you more (I am now scared that this is becoming a habit :)).

The lady behind the counter is a deep philosopher. Tell her when you meet her next. Many a time, she has said something profound in a few simple words. And expressed it far better than distinguished Profs do in a research paper !!

Sriram Khé said...

Oh ... I rarely run into the "old" checkout people these days. either our schedules are off, or they are working fewer hours, or ... This was my first ever significant exchange with her.

It was bound to happen, my friend--it was only a matter of time before you waved the white flag and agreed with me over and over and over ;)

Anne in Salem said...

No, no, no. Too much agreeing. Reading your debates is part of the joy of reading the blog.