Heads Up!
He slides his knife easily across the fruit and soon accumulates a tidy passel of thin, red-yellow-green curls. I watch awhile and then pick up my own knife, moving it jerkily over the colorful skin. Soon, my mat is swimming with sweet, sticky juice and a pile of short parings thick with fruit. Now and then, a paring lands in my lap or with an embarrassing slap! on the tiled floor. It’s very quiet in the kitchen, except for the buzz of fluorescent lights and the juicy slap of another paring. I duck under the table to hide my blush and retrieve the slippery thing.
I wonder. Is it because he has a better knife?—larger hands—more experience? I hunch over my work with frustrated concentration. I suddenly jerk up. I have an appointment with the chiropractor later in the afternoon. Her instructions are to keep my head up. My work tends to keep my head leaning forward, and I’ve started to lose the backward c-curve in my neck.
I am already hunching over my work again, but my head bobs back.
Head up!
Queenly posture.
Head up!
Backward C-curve.
Head up!
Plum-line.
Lift the head!
I love the little shock that happens when something suddenly reminds you of something else. “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter of my head.” Psalm 3:3.
I continue peeling mangos, and I think about my spiritual posture. Does despondency cause spiritual scoliosis?—a crooked outlook on life? Do I spend too much time bent forward, looking dejectedly at the ground? Maybe I need to spend more time looking up. “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Psalm 5:3.
A knife grinder passes through the neighborhood. Tinny notes slide up and down the scale, and he calls out, “¡Afilador!” I stifle a sigh as another paring lands wetly beneath the table. Would a sharper knife help?
[Written during the height of the mango season this past summer.]
Tuesday, December 13, 2011