Oranges

I really like oranges. Every week, when I go to Fresh & Easy to do my grocery shopping I pick up a bag of five or six oranges. Every week, that is, until last week.

Last week I found myself in Costco, in front of a 13-pound box of oranges. "This is fantastic," I thought, "if I buy this box of oranges then I won't have to worry about running out of oranges near the end of the week. Heck, I may not even have to buy any oranges for a couple weeks. If I buy this, I'll be pretty damn set as far as oranges go."

So I bought the 13-pound box of oranges.

But a 13-pound box of oranges isn't all fun and games. First, there appears to be less quality control with the higher quantity, meaning that I'm finding myself with more oranges that just aren't all that tasty. Worse, oranges are perishable. This means that I can either eat oranges at my usual pace and watch the oranges at the bottom of my overfilled fruit bowl (not to mention the ones still in the original box) turn yellow and mushy, or I can start making two oranges a feature of every meal. If there's a disease that's the polar opposite of scurvy, the latter tact might land me with a nasty case.

As I worked my way through a very mediocre orange at lunch today, I couldn't help but think about the motivation for buying a 13-pound box of oranges. Is it any different than the motivation that seems to drive so many of us today? Stacking up bank accounts and retirement accounts, new cars, big homes, vacation homes, and, of course, a bigger, flatter, sharper, brighter, way-more-kick-ass TV.

We may not all be afraid of running out of oranges, but most of us seem dead set on trying to make sure we have an overabundance of everything else. Lost in the shuffle is the quality of the work we do to get the money to enable it all, the quality of the things that we are buying in 13-pound boxes, and the overall quality of our lives. Surely, the thought process goes, quality of life will undoubtedly follow if only I have enough of [insert just about anything here]. How has that been working out?

Ah, but don't waste your time worrying about any of that. After all, this is just a story about a 13-pound box of oranges.


--