Throughout my workday I tend to have mini "revelations" about life. Sometimes they are in fact mini, other times I feel that they are grand ideas and concepts pertaining to philosophical ideals and such. I try not to get ahead of myself and usually laugh at the fact that such ideas even tend to cross my mind.
Today as I was working, a thought did cross my mind that I would like to share. I had this idea that people are very much like fruit. Maybe this comparison has been made before, and if so I apologize. But if you think about it, people start off just like fruit. Small, immature and generally unassuming in a sea of leaves and other under-ripe fruit. Then as both humans and fruits age they grow physically in size and on other levels as well. Fruits get sweeter (for the most part) and humans mature psychologically (also for the most part).
Now, here is the idea that got me thinking the most. When a fruit reaches the peak of ripeness, there are two paths that it can take. (For the sake of simplicity and to illustrate an idea, let us assume for now these are the only two paths. I realize you can do a great deal with fresh fruit). One fruit is picked at its utmost peak of flavor, the perfect point. It is juicy, tender, fresh, delicious, and unadulterated. However, this fruit is then allowed to pass this point of perfection. It is allowed to putrefy. It becomes disfigured and loses all of its previously desirable attributes. It becomes so horrid, that it even becomes a danger to all the other ripening and fully ripened fruit around it. So then it is cast out and forgotten.
At the same time, however, there is an equally perfect and delicious fruit that is carefully plucked at the moment of perfection and travels to the home of a vintner. This vintner uses a caring hand to transform this perfect fruit into a wine of divine character. He waits patiently as his work needs time to mature. Every couple of months he takes a sample of the wine and decides it is still not ready. Months turn into years as the wine is still not ready, but the humble vintner sees great potential. Soon word spreads of this magnificent wine. However, the vintner does not give in to the pleading people. "It is not ready, but soon don't you worry," he says in an effort to quell the masses.
Another year passes, and at this point the vintner has aged considerably since the start of our story. He forgets to check the wine, first for one month, then two, then three. Then one day during a village celebration an old friend asks him about the wine and the vintner shoots up out of his seat! He had forgotten about the wine! He runs back home and rolls out the barrel, opens the spout and takes a sip--- he cannot believe his tongue. It is a moment of pure beauty. A revelation if you will. corks the large barrel and starts rolling it to the center of town. He is yelling all the way in pure joy. At this point, the villagers do not know the cause of the commotion and run to his aid. The music and dancing stop and the dancers clear the way as this wild man rolls his barrel of wine to the center of the village square. Almost out of breath, he asks the person closest to him for a cup and fills it with the wine. He gives it back without saying a word. The man takes a sip, is silent for a moment and then starts laughing and crying out of pure ecstasy and joy. The vintner then starts filling everyone's cups so that they may all get a taste. They all take a sip and burst out in shouts of joy. The vintner had created the finest wine anyone had ever tasted. For that one moment, they all had a moment of clarity. A moment where their troubles were gone and they were living only in that one moment.
For the rest of the evening, they could not help but celebrate the vintners success. They danced and sang to their hearts content. They even thanked the vintner for not letting them drink the wine earlier. As the celebrating continued late into the night, the vintner found a seat at the edge of the square distancing himself from the revelers. He sat in quiet contemplation and remembered that beautiful fruit he had picked all those years ago. Staring back at the people, he let out a sigh of contentment. That fruit had brought so much happiness to so many people and it would never be forgotten.
Many years later, even after the quiet passing of the humble vintner, the wine was still remembered. It had become a legend in the village and the vintner, a hero. Word had even spread to other towns in the countryside; however, no one else other than the party-goers that evening many years ago were to ever taste the wine again.
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So which will it be? You can take life in two directions. You can grow older and live a foul life and have a fate similar to the first fruit. Or, you can live a life of continuous maturation and learning and have a fate similar to the second fruit. The choice is yours.
People forget how their actions can influence others. Live a life worth living so that in the end you become like the vintner and his wine. They will be remembered for eternity for the joy they brought this small village. How will you be remembered?
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