Lumpy Carrot Syndrome

This past weekend, I went to visit my dad.  My father doesn't watch television, doesn't read, and doesn't really have many constructive hobbies (you know... like painting pottery, crocheting, woodburning).  He has a tendency to get bored.  One thing that keeps him occupied is his garden.  He's got a monstrous and fabulous garden.  And OH EM GEE... is he proud of it-- and for good reason.  He's got a huge stockpile of fresh lettuce, beets, green beans, peas, peppers galore, tomatoes (holy TOMATOES), carrots, potatoes, dill (yuck), corn, onions, green onions, etc. etc.  My sister Liz had instructed me to "make sure and bring some garden stuff back for us!"  Little did she know what she was getting herself into.  Needless to say, my dad packed up the entire trunk of my Starship with produce.  I brought it back to Liz's last night.  So much produce that it looked as though I had dropped the entire Kalamazoo Farmer's Market in her teeny kitchen. 



A photo doesn't even do these things justice...

 Included in my wekeend vegetable treasures was a bag full of carrots.  Not just any carrots... these were very special carrots.  Liz and I both commented on the "special" carrots.  They were lumpy and bumpy and growing parts and splitting off into two or three "legs."  When my dad first gave me the bag of carrots, I looked at them and said, "What are these?  Yams?"  He said no, they were carrots.  I commented on how strange they looked.  His response?  "You know, too often it seems that people just look at what something looks like.  They don't stop to think that the carrots might actually be good."  I thought about it-- yeah, he was right.  But THEN he went on (and for those of you who know my father, this won't sound like him... but I assure you, this is all him).  "That's a good lesson in life -- too often people just look at what's on the outside and they don't stop to think that something or someone might really be good on the inside."  Let me tell you, my father is a man of very few words.  Very rarely are those words philosophical, nurturing, or heartfelt.  As intelligent as he is, the guy's no Aristotle.  It's usually pretty cut-and-dried with him.  To hear his musings on life was a big surprise for me. 

And although his little life lesson in the garden was very short and simple, I've been thinking about it ever since.  He's right-- so often we look at someone or something and all we see is the exterior (I wrote about this in a prevous post-- and btw, the "Mr. Tattoos" I reference in that post has become somewhat of a good friend).  It's so easy to place judgment on others, isn't it?  And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm as guilty of it as anyone.  It seems so easy to look at someone's clothes, their circumstances, hairstyle, hobbies, whatever... and jump to some negative conclusion about them.  Maybe it's easy to look down on people when we feel like our lives are going perfectly.  However, when we've got our own issues to deal with (especially when they're pretty conspicuous issues), we're suddenly more aware of the stigmas that get placed on others, or the judgments that inevitably follow. 

I've been on both sides of the judgment, I'm sorry to say.  And while it often gives us some strange, unnecessarily wonderful power trip when we look down on others, to be on the receiving end of the judgments feels terrible.  No human has the right to feel like he or she is better than someone else.  Every single person (whether it's apparent or not) has his or her own demons to deal with.  And those demons make life ever more difficult.  It's when we're weak from fighting the demons that we need the most love-- and unfortunately, it's also when we're weak from fighting the demons that we're most vulnerable to judgment.  Everyone has their own "lumps and bumps" that might make them seem less desirable.  We've all found ourselves in poor situations, and despite how some people may appear, no one is perfect.  Some are "lumpier" than others, and it's those "lumpy" ones that could especially use some kindness.

No matter how "lumpy" we are, no matter how we got those "lumps," the following remain true: we're all human, we all have a heart, and we all need to be loved.  Sometimes the lumpy carrots are the sweetest carrots.  Embrace the lumpy carrots in your life.