The Watermelon

This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. You may think that you know a lot about yourself. You may know where you were born and where you grew up. You may know who your family is and where they were born too. But what do you really know? Is what you know as important as what you don’t know?

Yes. Call me a deep thinker. But you don’t have to dig deep to find a watermelon.

Watermelons grow on top of the ground. They have vines and like to climb. But what the vines produce are heavy. So they like resting on the ground.

I know that watermelons are sweet. And juicy. Some have lots of seeds. Some don’t have seeds at all.

There are many different kinds of watermelons in all colors and shapes.

But one of the things I didn’t know, and there aren’t many of those things, is that a watermelon is technically both a vegetable and a fruit!

It is a fruit because it grows from a seed, it has a sweet flavor and refreshing qualities. It is a vegetable because it is harvested and cleared from the field like other vegetables and because it is a member of the same family as the cucumbers, pumpkin and squash.

I can only imagine how many watermelons grew up thinking that they knew everything about themselves.

And then they found out that they weren’t the label they thought they were. And I wondered if this made them feel different about themselves.

We all want to identify. We want to feel included and proud. But what happens when you find out you aren’t the labels you put on yourself?

We all want to be special, and often, we put value on things that we shouldn’t. The variety that makes up our world is beautiful. And we are all varieties. There is no one exactly like us. Not even ones in our family.

When we only identify with one label or place or color, we take away what we can truly be because we aren’t concentrated on who we really are as an individual.

If a watermelon is put in a salad, it’s still a watermelon. If a watermelon had salt sprinkled on it, it’s still a watermelon. If a watermelon has sugar put on it, it’s still a watermelon. And that’s a good thing.