It is not the first time I have written a vegetable story. Previously I wrote about how to be a good vegetable. Here, as inspired by all the vegetable vendors by the road I am writing again about vegetables.
This time about their shelf life.
On shelf life
Vegetables have a shelf life. Shorter than the other items in the supermarket. So, if they are not sold, they will straight go into the dust bin. That is a life of a vegetable. Yet other items also have their own shelf life. Even sugar, even soap, even petroleum has a shelf life of six months to one year. Can you think of anything which doesn't rot, given enough time? What does it mean something has a shelf life?
Given enough time everything changes, slow enough process most of the time it is not dramatic like vegetables. Of course, vegetables go from fresh to dry and inedible within days.
A thought experiment on shelf life.
Let's look at shelf life of different 'things' we encounter in our daily lives. You might get surprising answers.
What is the shelf life of water?
What is the shelf life of a piece of a rock?
What is the shelf life of plastic?
What is the shelf life of a language?
What is the shelf life of a civilization?
What is the shelf life of a successful company?
What is the shelf life of a child?
What is the shelf life of a human?
What is the shelf life of earth?
What is the shelf life of a thought?
We can try to answer each and everything. Then I understand that everything has a one. Even me, even thoughts. Last year's thoughts are no longer there. I can't even remember them; I did not have the blog to write them down those days. As they were not written down, no copy of them is available. Expired like vegetables.
When you look at people do you see their shelf life? Of course not. It would be amazing if we could. And we would be a better society, without looking at the skies we would more and more looking at ourselves. At least I have seen a couple of movies where people can see their remaining days and seconds, would it change anything? Would we still be running away to get the best shot of Alcohol, or best views in the luxurious vacation?
Other similarities with rotten vegetables.
Have you seen farmers and vendors, how much trouble they come across to keep the vegetable fresh. Hand picking them up, packaging carefully, keeping them refrigerated, enough moisture throughout, if anything rotten removed to lessen it spread. Yet some of them go bad before they end up in our kitchen. If they are not sold in time, definitely all of them would go rotten. It's inevitable.
And I see vegetables, playing, running in their running shoes to keep their good shape. To burn the calories and make the heart pump efficiently. I see some vegetables, only consume healthy vegetables, paying extra cash to buy only organic items. I see some vegetables do not care, they just enjoy life, saying others that we should "Enjoy while we can". I see no difference. Them vegetables on shelves and us vegetables on running shoes. Like farmers, and vendors; doctors and teachers, and well-wishers try to help us keep fresh, yes, I do pity their effort. Yet being a vegetable, it is inevitable that it is going to be rotten one day. Maybe in a couple of decades.
So, what would you do? Would you seek answers to the question of life? Or just be a rotten vegetable or be consumed by the society.
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