A Hush Over the Crowd

 


 Once upon a time,

Long long ago,

When the earth was young

I used to help my Aunt and Uncle in the garden.

It was in the garden

While we were busy picking tomatoes

That the stories would be shared.

 


 Most stories did not start with “Once upon a time”, because they were true stories. They normally came from experiences that happened during market while my aunt and uncle were selling the produce. I wasn't there. I just helped in the garden. However, I did get to hear the stories. They often came out while my aunt and uncle went down the tomato rows, one on either side, choosing, picking, discarding, and carefully placing on the ground the perfect tomatoes that they needed. My job was to pick up the tomatoes and put them in the corresponding crates. We had Better Boy, Lemon Boy, Pink Beauty, and all sorts of tomatoes with funny names. One of the first things I learned was to never mix the red tomatoes that were different types. These red tomatoes often looked very similar, but they were different varieties. They had different textures, or tastes, or acidity.

 

It was during this activity of walking back and forth to the truck that I would listen to snap shots of stories if there were any being told:

 

 

My Aunt speaking: “One of the venders was asking me if we actually keep all of our tomatoes separate. I said, 'Yes, we do.' The lady was amazed. She said, 'I am impressed. I just mix all my red tomatoes together, but label them as Better Boys or Beefsteak or Jet Star.'”

 

 

As I walked back through the isles of plants with my carefully separated red tomatoes, I imagined the surprise of a customer biting into a red juicy Jet Star only to find them tasting a bland Better Boy. Or tasting a true Jet Star for the first time at our stand expecting the taste of a Better Boy.

 

 



 

“Susanna, listen to this.” My Uncle said. “Your Aunt and I were putting out all the produce. As usual, there was a line gathering. They were chattering to each other as they waited for market to open. We had finally finished putting out all the produce except for the lettuce. We didn't want it to wilt in the heat. As I lifted up the first head of lettuce, placing it into the basket, a hush filled the crowd...”


At that I laughed out right. Those ladies should have seen me and my Aunt in the garden earlier that day exclaiming, “This lettuce is aweful. It has cricket holes, and brown stuff that looks like rust.” We were stripping those heads of lettuce to almost half their size trying to make them worthy of selling.


 

 

 As I continued to pick up tomatoes and carrying them to the truck I wondered....

 

 Which is better?

To be a Jet Star tomato pretending and trying to be a Better Boy tomato 

 

Or

To be a lettuce that looked beautiful on the outside but full of cricket holes and rust on the inside?

 

Both can be scary situations

To be in the minority and own who you really are

Or

To allow your imperfections shape you and be brought to light

It is important to notice that my Aunt and Uncle would often sell almost all of their produce. It didn't matter that their tomatoes tasted like their names indicated, or that their lettuce had a bit of dirt, leaves pulled off, and a few cricket holes. Perhaps the “hush over the crowd” was the customers seeing beyond the dirt. They were seeing and anticipating the taste of fresh crispy lettuce grown in rich soil.

 


Who are you?

Are you a Better Boy, grown on a Better Boy plant, pretending to be a Jet Star?

Are you a head of lettuce hiding your cricket holes with lots of big leafy greens?

Or

Do you leave a hush over the crowd because you are you?



I like to find stories in unlikely places and connect them with unlikely subjects. Here are stories and analogies that I see as I travel around the world.

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