Carrot, Egg, or Coffee – another over think

I like internet memes.  Some make you laugh, some are zingers, and some make you think.  The great ones do all three. 

I have a friend who posted what is actually a parable in meme form.  It said:

Grandmother says... Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee; "Which are you?"

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked. "What's the point, grandmother?"

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity--boiling water--but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her granddaughter.

"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?

---AUTHOR UNKNOWN —

 

As ever, I have positive and negative feelings about this story.  On the surface, it appears to be a wise grandmother’s advice to a struggling child.  But then, as ever, my brain kicks in and I start to pick the story apart. 

I think it is a normal feeling to want to change the world around you.  Heck, this is why I am blogging. What Grandma is not telling her granddaughter in this story, is what it will take for the coffee bean to do its job. 

Let me get totally crazy on this train of thought for a minute:
First off, you smell an aroma, you taste a flavor. But, I digress.

Carrots are pulled out of the ground and refrigerated. Hmm. Coddled. 

Eggs are plucked from the nest and refrigerated. Hmm. Coddled. 

But a coffee bean?

Coffee “beans” (which are actually pits of a small red fruit) are selected, washed, dried and fermented, dried again, stripped, sold, aged, sorted, shipped to another country, roasted at 250-500 degrees, bought, and are crushed to powder.

And only then are they subjected to the hot water of adversity.  The implication of this story is that the coffee bean changed the hot water.  It didn’t.  The hot water is still hot water. 

The coffee beans have spent their lives in adversity, and have certainly been in more heat than a 212 degree pot of boiling water.  They have also been subjected to all manner of indignities before they ever got to the hot water in the first place. 

And, had they been put right in after harvest, like the carrot or egg, the results would have been undrinkable, and actually toxic. 

Their ‘life experiences’ were tools in a toolbox to make the message of coffee palatable for the masses, and their plunging into the water is what they were processed to do.  It is the highest thing to which a coffee bean can aspire. 

The ground coffee beans are now waste. 

Another point, the carrots and eggs are still functional (edible). The egg was pretty unpalatable, even dangerous, without being cooked.  What was once little more than an ingredient is now a stand-alone entrée.

Now, back to this parable; perhaps the idea should be that to change the world, and to have yourself and your essence (ideas) be palatable to the masses,  you need to be willing to be ground up and put yourself out there.  We need to be willing to waste and wear out our lives to infuse the world with our essence. 

We have seen it throughout world history. 
And most, while loving the initial idea of changing things, are not willing to do this. 

I could have also mentioned the inherent corruption, and lack of oversight to fair-trade practices that run throughout the coffee industry, but that is an over think for another day…