Episode 44: Things Grown in Perfect Conditions are Meant to be Eaten

[00:00:00] What in life deserves our time and attention, and what things don't? I hope that as we consider that question, along with other topics on this show, 

that we can all learn to live our lives just a little more intentionally. This is Seth Roberts. Thanks for joining me on Skipping Stones - "Things Grown in Perfect Conditions are Meant to be Eaten." 

In spite of what it may seem like sometimes, the cost of food for the average person, relative to the [00:00:30] last several thousand years, has never been more affordable than it is now. Farming has become such an incredible science that our crop yields have never been higher. And we only seem to be getting better.

We have domesticated plants over the course of thousands of years, to the point that they no longer resemble the original plants that they descended from.

We've created environments so perfect for them, that the likelihood of them not to succeed in growing, barring [00:01:00] some natural disaster, is hard to imagine.

That being said, I wonder if the other plants had the capacity to be conscious if they would look at all that corn and all that wheat and think, man, they've got it easy. Especially as they watch the domesticated plants get pampered with the perfect mixture of nutrient rich soil. Then of course, a few months later when the domesticated plants are thriving, They'll watch them all get cut to [00:01:30] shreds and ripped out of the ground so another plant can be planted and pampered.

And at that point, I suspect that all the weeds around to witness are thinking, I'm glad that wasn't me. More broadly in our lives, I think it's so easy for us to look at other people and see how easy things are for them and to resent that they have things so good while we're still kicking around in the school of hard knocks.

At the same time that we [00:02:00] often resent these people that have more than us or are better than us at something, we still find a way to take pride in our circumstances and even wear those circumstances like a shiny badge of honor sometimes. I remember times when I was in grade school hearing other kids brag to each other about how poor they were.

I did not come from a poor family, so if somehow, I ever ended up being a part of those conversations, I usually got told something along the lines of, [00:02:30] "You have it easy." And maybe that was true. relative to some. The reason I think people sometimes find themselves bragging about poverty or bad circumstances is because there's an implication behind it that however modest their accomplishments, it is an incredible feat that they achieve them at all.

It also allows them to fantasize a little bit about who they could be, and at the same time, it allows them to justify why [00:03:00] they aren't that person. In the back of our minds, we all allow ourselves to think, had anyone else been in my situation? They wouldn't be any better off than me. Or we might think at the same time that, had we been given a break, we could have been where someone else is.

Even though either of those thoughts could be entirely true, they're totally useless. It isn't like we really want to trade places with anyone. That would be [00:03:30] like using a cheat code for life, and suddenly the game would become incredibly boring. Without some difficulty. Nothing is fun. If it was, we'd still be feeling good about ourselves every time we used the toilet instead of having an accident.

A rich kid becoming rich doesn't generally impress anybody too much, but a poor kid becoming rich usually does. If, perchance, we were to end up having [00:04:00] wild success in the future, I tend to think that very few of us would actually wish we had had things as easy as another person. There's a kind of pride we take in our history.

I know I would feel robbed if somehow all the bad things that happened to me were erased. You don't hear people brag very often about how easy they had it. Would you ever want to erase your past hardships in life if you had the ability to do that? We take pride in having come through the [00:04:30] fire because it's worth taking pride in.

What's more admirable than overcoming obstacles? I think the proudest people on earth are the people that came from nothing and turned it around somehow. Every successful person, be it financial or successful in some other way, has some story about when they had nothing or where they were at an all-time low.

And you can see when they talk about those times that they carry a deep pride in having [00:05:00] gotten through them. The vast majority of domesticated plants today Would completely fail to succeed over the long term without the care and effort put into them by people. They are not adapted to survival or even to reproduce well.

They are adapted to grow fast and big and to be cut down and eaten by people just like people. If they've had everything come easy to them, just [00:05:30] imagine how quickly they will falter the first time they face any resistance. We need to go through hard things to grow strong. If I were to have to choose to be a plant, I think I'd want to be a weed.

Actually, I take that back. I'd want to be a live oak because I think they're incredible. But I admire the fight that weeds put up, and even oaks start out as weeds. Maybe we can all learn a lesson from that weed that refuses [00:06:00] to be eradicated by our weed killer. It has no problem choosing to grow in the cracks of our driveways.

It's a sad reality that if we want to become more than who we are, we need to experience pain and hardship. I hate this fact about life, but then again, I like what my hardships have made of me. So maybe I don't really hate it all that much. A life of perpetual pleasure and joy is not a happy life. Yes, it [00:06:30] would be nice if someone handed me a gazillion dollars, and I don't know that I would say no to that.

But I would feel much more pride in having found a way to earn that money myself. Your pain and your bad circumstances have the potential to be turned into something that serves you. And every time you do manage to turn one of your hardships into a useful lesson, you gain confidence. And when you gain a little more confidence, it makes the next [00:07:00] step that much easier.

Don't let your bad circumstances be your excuse, but rather let them become your advantage. If we can keep those terrible moments in our life from turning us to resentment and resignation, we might be able to allow those moments to become wisdom instead. If you can manage to do that, your hardship can give you a greater gift than any amount of inheritance.

Things grown in [00:07:30] perfect conditions are meant to be 

eaten. This is Skipping Stones. You can find this podcast anywhere you choose to listen to podcasts. For more information about me, feel free to visit skippingstonessr.com. And if you enjoyed the show, please like or subscribe. If there is a topic you would like me to speak on, please feel free to email me at info@skippingstonessr.com.

New episodes will be released weekly. [00:08:00] Every Monday.