just eat a fig
SYLVIA PLATH – tHE BELL JAR
"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."
While the fear is very real about making the “right” decision before the figs fall and wither due to choice paralysis. I actually prefer to think about this idea from the page right after this quote.
"I don't know what I ate, but I felt immensely better after the first mouthful. It occurred to me that my vision of the fig tree and all the fat figs that withered and fell to earth might well have arisen from the profound void of an empty stomach."
In all honesty, I think every 20-something year old can relate to the difficulty in decision-making for the long run. I feel like I have to constantly have a plan in place and change the plan depending on how the cards fall. But sometimes, you’re just hungry. Sometimes you just need to take care of yourself and just pick one of the d*mn figs. You are allowed to pick another if the one you picked is too sweet or sour. The most important thing is that you don’t forget to eat.
Kashya Creates 