Friday, October 12, 2007

Apple? Pear? Bananas? Why do we think of ourselves as fruit?

"Reclining Produce" image from http://www.reallybent.blogspot.com a fantastic sister blog to http://bentobjects.blogspot.com with the works of an artist who uses all sorts of every day items to create sculptures that are sure to put a smile on your face.

I think the title "peared" with the picture says it all.

Have you ever noticed that we seem to spend a lot of time comparing ourselves to fruit?

You may think that I am a little "nutty" but I like to think that there is more to me than seeds, skin and some natural sugars (although I like to think that I am pretty darn sweet!).

So I set my mind to it. Why am I using fruit to only describe my body type? Isn't only describing the external just as silly as what I am using to compare it to?

Maybe I should say my heart is like a persimmon. Hard on the outside and sort of gooey and mushy on the inside. My brain is like a kiwi. Covered with hair and full of lots of seeds, most of which will just be ignored.

We can continue to extend this analogy well outside of our own bodies. My relationship with my family can best be described as bananas. My best friend would say I am nuts. Loads of people who do not know me overly well would say I am berry, berry nice. My great grandmother used to call me a peach. There are some days I feel like passion fruit, ,and other days I want to hide under the blankets because it is more of an ugly fruit day.

There are days where I feel like a medlar, and others where I am a real prickly pear. Often I head out to look for plum bargains with my blackberry to keep "currant". My car is a total lemon. We blow rasberries at babies (I never understood that. Then we get mad at them when they spit at people!)

Of course, all of us were born with that little cherry and often feel like a bit of a horned melon.

So stop using fruit to try to figure out how to describe your external, and start working on the fruit salad of your life!

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

...Because they are figures of speech that have been incorporated into our daily vernacular. Describing ourselves as fruit is better than animalizing ourselves! People use animals all the time - looking like a cow, eating like a pig/horse, strong as a bull, agile as a cat, the heart of a lion, playful as a dolphin, busy as a beaver, wise as an owl, cunning as a fox, etc. Can't we just be people?