Today as I was attempting to dice tomatoes, I was reminded yet again of the fact that the knife was still waiting to be sharpened. As the seeds mushed out of the flesh when I applied pressure, I thought of how ironic it is that soft items are the ones that seem to give the most resistance to the blade. I can slice through durable foods like apples and cucumbers with something as simple as a butter knife, but for the more fragile items like tomatoes and ripe peaches, it takes a sharper blade.
The irony of the tough being overcome by the weaker blade, while the soft withstood the pressure reminded me of one of my favorite taoist quotes from the Tao Te Ching:
"Nothing in the world is softer than water,
Yet nothing is better at overcoming the hard and strong.
The supple overcomes the hard,
And the so-called weak, the strong.
People know this, but no one quite believes it.
The sage always shoulders the blame, and the grief
--that is why he is fit to rule
He takes on his nation like a world
As if it was the world
--and so it is.
And the truth is that the truth is often a paradox."
We in the peace and social justice movements can learn a lot from tomatoes. On a hopeful note, it seems that at least some of the movements' greatest leaders like Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied this profound truth that can be discovered by anyone in a place as common as the kitchen.
2 comments:
oh my gosh, is there a way for me to bookmark this? what a beautiful observation, beth.
Beth,
You invited me to check out your blog maybe six months ago. The way things are for me now, I just got around to it today.
Posts like this make me happy that I did, finally, get to it. And it makes me very glad that you're doing this, and sharing in this way.
What I like best is that I just didn't get around to it before, and now, when I do, I've found like four things that speak directly to me.
So thanks! Keep it up.
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