fruit salad

my kids love the wiggles

you know - the musical group from oz who sing with accents about rose-eating dinosaurs and pirates with tickle-sticks?

anyway - the wiggles have this song called "fruit salad" and it's got me thinking.

life is like fruit salad.

someone else makes it for you, puts the ingredients in it, and serves it to you.
you may have to eat it, but you can pick out the bits of things you don't like.

see, there are three kinds of people in the world

1. those who pick the things out that they don't like and enjoy the rest of the fruit salad

2. those who pick out the things that they don't like and rant and rave about how ridiculous it is that anyone should ever include something like guava - for heaven's sake! - in a fruit salad

3. those who just like the fruit salad and eat every bite


but there are some funny dynamics with these fruity-salad eaters


a. those who love the salad often think that those who don't are just grouchy...but this is unfair, since the grouchy people have actually been served something they didn't like, whereas the happy salad-eater has no disruption in his fruit

b. those who pick the things out they don't like often feel smug because they are more mature than those who wig out over the bad-ingredients and think that those who love the salad are just empty-headed simpletons who WOULD behave like idiots if there was something in the salad they didn't like (this, on occasion, may even be true)

c. those who hate an ingredient in the salad may even have a point that guava should not be in a fruit salad in the northern hemisphere, being such a foreign fruit, and may feel that their legitimate gripe justifies their illegitimate temperament



so - who is the "good" fruit salad eater?


a. the one who loves it, eats it all, thanks god for it and prays for the grace to love it just as much even when there's something in it they don't like

and,

b. the one who hates an ingredient, has a valid point about why that ingredient should not be included, and expresses themselves with restraint and grace - aware of the fact that others may genuinely enjoy guava and do not want to have their meal ruined by the rantings of american-ingredient-only fruit salad eaters

and,

c. the one who picks out what they don't like, but also takes time to thank god for those who are currently enjoying their salad and to pray for those who need an extra measure of the spirit while suffering under the dictatorship of the guava


being "good" is not about your salad

it's not even about whether or not you like your salad

it's about you
and how you deal with whatever fruits you've been dealt
and how you perceive others, and have grace for others, in the middle of their meals as well.


oh...and i'm not really talking about fruit salad