So I'm making oatmeal one morning recently, and I'm going to have
a banana with it. I select one of the five suspended from my
banana holder, have a nice breakfast, and go off to work.
There, I pass many hours struggling with an apparent memory leak
in Oracle[1] and dealing with the fire alarm or three that appear daily,
occasionally interrupting myself with thoughts of Edward,
sex, the foggy day outside (later, the sunny day outside),
November lumber futures and December corn, Edward, sex,
Everything2, and sex. Some of these things have sad aspects to them, and
provoke self-pity, which I wallow in for a few minutes and then return to
work.
As I realize often, whatever I consider to be my troubles, others in the
world have much bigger crosses to bear.
Upon arriving home, I am greeted with a scene of horror the likes of which
have been conspicuously absent from my relatively sheltered life. The kind
of thing that one is never prepared for; that only happens to
other people.
Self-destruction. The Final Exit.
There, hanging by a thread,
necks lolling at a macabre angle, all four of the remaining
bananas lay partially on the counter, a thin strip of their outer skin
the only connection to their stems still entangled in the hook;
one was completely severed. Inches away, the mango protested its
innocence. The potato across the sink agreed, its eyes having had
no choice but to take in the whole ugly mess[2].
Looking at the scene, it was clear to me that this had been a group
action undertaken by the bananas.
Why? we always ask, knowing that any answers can never
be certain. Had they seen the end that that delicious Giant Cavendish
had met at my hands that morning, and decided among themselves that there
was no point in just waiting for their own turn to come? Could this be
the latest sign of the epidemic use of Prozac, Zoloft, and similar
SSRI antidepressants in the U.S.? Some might even suspect yet another
cult had met its grisly end.
Regardless, it had to be dealt with. I respectfully re-covered the
exposed flesh of the victims, and placed two of them in the refrigerator.
The others I ate, slowly, honoring and cherishing them, though I had
known them hardly at all. After all, they still had appeal.
[1] Actually, the memory leak was in DCOracle2, an Oracle interface
for Python.
[2] The potato part is totally made up, just for the silly pun.
There was no potato in my kitchen that day.
I recognize that my treatment of this odd episode as a suicide
may be hurtful to someone who has had a real such loss in their life.
I extend my apologies and sympathies to you, but I also find it humorous.