Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The happiness in a seed




Is there anything more sad than a watermelon without seeds?

This morning I went to the grocery shop and I saw a huge basket filled with seedless watermelons. The sign said that those were special watermelons since they didn't have seeds.

Rubem Alves says that happiness consists off small moments of joy. And, for me, there's no better joy than to spit watermelon seeds. Far away.

I think those watermelons must feel pretty sad fruits themselves. Where's happiness on going to a house that no one wants to compete on spitting watermelons seeds? And who is this person who invented the seedless watermelon? Oh, what a sad person who doesn't know what is happiness.

In my house, my father was the one who taught my two sisters and I the naughty tricks. The crime of the watermelon was one of the first he taught us. To cut the watermelons in slices and eat them on the table very politely? Forget about it. We used to go to the yard, put the watermelon on a table and carve the fruit with spoons. Looking at the garden we would spit the seeds as far as we could. The winner was the one who spat the farthest, of course.

I refuse to buy a seedless watermelon. I'm gonna buy one with seeds just to teach Nicolas how to spit them: very far away. My father will be very proud.

Seeds were frequent things on my childhood. Avocado, mango and olive seeds had each their very own purposes.

Avocado seeds make huge marbles and good tools for target practicing.

Who has never made dolls out of mango seeds? Just wash, let them dry and draw with markers.

Olive seeds keep a wonderful secret. Our happiness as children wasn't just to eat pizza. What we want most was to sit with my dad to crack the olives seed and eat the little meat that there is inside. Haven't you ever done that? You don't know what you are missing.

Some of my friends already know, but for the ones who don't my father is really sick. In this fragile moment, when I'm so far away, the best thing I can do is to remember of the happiest moments he offered us with the simplest things life could offer: seeds.

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