Berry picking

     Picking berries has been an agricultural function since ancient history. While the types and uses of berries alter with the time and culture, the process remains remarkably the same even for different berry types. Many berries are thrown out because they are imperfect by their size, age, or other qualities. Age is the only attribute that can be justified in contributing to a berry not being picked: it is either too ripe or to the point of molding off. Other reasons should be ignored. Size is unimportant if the berries are to be eaten free of hand or mashed into ingredients. Dried-up berries will still provide flavor when added to the overall berry mixture. Even oddly shaped, slightly aged, or the young, sour berries can be used when mixed in to the larger picture.

     People are like berries. Everyone contributes to the final creation. Size, color, age, and juiciness all vary with the individual. Some groups may be better in size but lose flavor while some of the driest berries may be exactly what is needed for the right taste. Being too perfect may actually detract from the success of that berry because it will be the first one snatched up birds, deer, squirrels, or people which would destroy its potential for reproduction. The most undesirable berries can be the most successful for their usefulness and reproduction.
    Many great leaders and thinkers of the past have not brought children into the world to carry on the legacy of their name or qualities. Alexander the Great, founder of the largest empire of his time, fathered a child but failed to live long enough to rear him. Nikola Tesla, though one of the most creative minds to work with electricity, never had a known relationship with any woman. Ludwig van Beethoven, the great musician, never succeeded in marrying or having children.
     While the finest of berries may be exquisite in certain aspects, the emphasis on one quality forces a decline in other areas. Many of the most brilliant people in the world struggle with social conventions. Conversely, those who interact perfectly with others, seemingly reading other people's thoughts out of the air, may fail rudimentary intelligence tests.
     On the pendulum's reverse swing rests the berries that are poisonous to eat. People, as berries, can poison their consumer. The toxin does not destroy the usefulness of the berry, however. Consider that some of the worst criminals and ruffians become heroes in war. Despite their unsavory habits in polite society, their skills provided them with assets necessary in the heat of bloody war. Considering that some great war heroes may also become poisonous themselves when they fully ripen just as Adolf Hitler did after his respectable service in the Great War.
     The diversity expressed in the types and uses of berries are a poor comparison to the multiplicity of character people reveal. Don't judge a book by its cover. Don't judge a berry by a single variety of qualities. The only way to know if a berry is true is to eat it just like the only way to know the character of a person is to get to know them.


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Agatha Tyche