Local Opinion: Food for thought

On one occasion when buying oranges at the grocery store I happened to glance at the UPC sticker and saw that the orange resting in my hand had traveled all the way from Chile, approximately 5,225 miles away.

That caught my attention and after a few seconds I found myself becoming curious about all the people who had handled that orange as it made its journey to my hand. Counting them up I figured it was at least eight people, from the one who picked the orange to the packer and shipper on up to the person who placed it on the produce shelf.

That’s eight different people from diverse backgrounds with different interests, relationships, problems and separate plans for their future, all who had their hands on that orange.

These were eight people who didn’t know each other but who became uniquely linked together and whose individual efforts would bring that orange to my breakfast table.

Those were eight people that I didn’t know or knew anything about and yet those eight people were going to collectively feed me. But isn’t it like that in all aspects of life? Aren’t we an amalgamation of humans with all types of labels and personality traits and hang-ups, as diverse as every snowflake that falls each winter and yet we know nothing of each other?

Basically, we remain strangers to a vast majority of those surrounding us. And by not knowing who they are, we don’t feel their joy or pain or share in their hopes or cry with them when they lose a loved one.

Still, they give us life, provide for our life, save our life and enhance our life. Without these people we can’t function to our greatest capacity. Basically, we live in a vacuum and without other people our life faces the danger of shrinking and becoming stagnant and imperfect.

It may have been just an orange that I held in my hand, but it quickly became an object of great insight and wisdom to me.

I was holding many hands in a clasp of togetherness, bringing sustenance and love and life to my table. It spoke volumes about how life is not an individual domain but a mesh of human lives and souls and spirits all functioning together in the same sphere for the good of all.

It told us that everyone is a precious asset – one that needs to be carefully protected and embraced with much respect, appreciation and love.

And at that moment I knew the joy and pleasure I would receive from that orange would be greatly enhanced far beyond my original expectation because I was now sharing it with eight other people who mattered.