A short story about reincarnation, avocados, the Rhondda Valley, sheep shearing, music and life, with a suggestion that we should all look beyond the surface to find the insights we need to thrive in the 21st century.
One of my favourite breakfast, brunch or lunch treats is mashed avocado on sourdough toast with crispy bacon. We're not sure where this trend of putting chilli flakes with it came from but, in our opinion, it's plain wrong. We haven't had it for a few months, but the last time I was shopping for avocados my brain went off down one of its slightly surreal rabbit holes.....
If I was to be reincarnated as a piece of fruit, I wouldn't want to be an avocado. Think about it. You sit there all firm and green and beautiful in the supermarket, going 'look at me I'm in my prime' and no one's interested. You might get the occasional passerby giving you a light squeeze and then they put you back on the shelf. For most of your best days, you're shunned by the world and that must hurt. Then you start going past your best and people start getting more interested in you. That's just not normal ! You get touched more often and then put back. Until the day that you're skin has aged and gone brown, your once firm flesh is soft. You're thinking your life is over and then someone like me comes alone, gives you a soft squish, smiles and puts you in their basket.
It's pretty much the opposite approach to the one I take with all other fruit. My standard fruit strategy is fresh looking and firm is good. Any sign of discolouration is a red flag. So I came to the conclusion that the avocado was a strange fruit. It didn't fit the fruit mould and if I were to reincarnate as a fruit, there were better choices.
The whole avocado analysis thing was a few months ago and forgotten, until last night. I was out with friends at a gig. The headline act was Katherine Priddy (if you haven't heard of her she's well worth a listen and I've popped my favourite song of hers at the end of this post). But it wasn't one of her songs that brought the avocado thoughts back, it was the support act, a local lad from Pontypridd called Tom Jenkins.
A lot of Tom's songs were about the history of the Rhondda valley, mining, and the exploitation of the working class. Before each song he would tell the story behind it. The song below, Old Rhondda, was the one that brought the avocado memory back, though he never mentioned an avocado all night.
The song came from him and a mate doing some sheep shearing (his other career) at a farm. When they got to the farm there were 600 sheep and some old blokes there so he thought it would be a hard contract as these guys were well past their sell by date. He talked and sang about those men, their lives down the pit, their knowledge and experience and what a great time they had together. Those men were well past their sell by date and, when he first saw them, he thought rotten apples. But when he looked closer he realised that they were ripe avocados, full of wisdom and insights.
Tom's stories last night got me to re-evaluate my previous avocado assessment.
Maybe being reincarnated as an avocado would be a better plan. I'd get to sit there for the best part of my life, taking in the world, getting occasionally fondled and looking great in a dark green wrinkly pear shaped way. And then, when my days are numbered and I'm almost past my sell by date, I get to go out in a blaze of tasty glory, spread thick on a piece of toast, mingling with salty butter and covered in tasty bits of well cooked bacon. Not a chilli flake in sight ! What a way to go out !
But the more serious thought wasn't about avocados. It was about how we judge and value the people around us. The world seems to be skewed at the moment towards being influenced by younger, fresher more beautiful types. They know how to leverage social media, they are more likely to understand the younger generation and they have the confidence to put their opinions out there. But in doing that maybe we are missing out on the history, lived experience and wisdom of those of us who have seen a lot, survived and have stories that may help the younger generation to thrive in the 21st century.
I think it's really easy to look at someone who outwardly appears to be past their sell by date and write them off as out of touch or irrelevant, rather than take the opportunity to look past the wrinkly skin, nose and ear hair and see what wisdom they have to share. If nothing else they will be able to give you a different perspective on current affairs and a richer take on how we got to where we are.
Now I'm not saying that the older you are, the wiser you will be. We've just seen England in particular have a significant vote for Reform UK and many of those people would have a much clearer memory of how their parents fought against fascism, but have failed to see the fascist undercurrents in who they just voted for. Similarly I wouldn't write off the opinions of young social media influencers either.
What I am saying is that the old sayings have a lot of common sense in them, particularly in this context:
Don't judge a book by its cover
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck
My father had a saying for most circumstances. The one that is most apt here is:
When my son was a boy he used to think I was a fool, but when he grew up he was surprised at how much I'd learnt.
It was a fair assessment of how I think most of us operate. When we are young, we tend to value younger opinions more. There is a reasonably body of neauroscience research out there that has shown that teenagers in particular are more likely to listen to others of similar age than any other age group. That was the case for me and I was in my twenties before I started to value the wisdom and experience of the older generations.
So, taking it all into consideration and stepping back a bit, I'm suggesting that maybe we should take more of an avocado approach to life and learning and look beyond the outward appearance so that we can see what value resides within. Sometimes you may find there is nothing of value beyond the public image, but other times you could find a wealth of wisdom and insight that will help you navigate this bonkers world of ours.
To finish off you're read have a click on Katherine's video and enjoy her beautiful voice.
Mike xx
