Life's Forbidden Fruit

       The famous concept of “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” is popular for the fact that many have felt that way. But there is another angle to that. There are certain things in life that you may not know you wanted until they show up and come knocking at your front door with all the appeal in the world.
       I wondered to myself today if life purposely hands you things while you’re here that you want more than anything, but cannot and will not have. Like God (or whoever may be up there) is dangling a string of precisely what you want in front of your face from the sky and when you go to reach it He pulls it up frantically and bursts into laughter. Are we meant to have these tortuous perfections that are to be left untouched for the rest of our existence? And if we do get an opportunity to reach it or force ourselves through the protective barriers to it, will this great goodness we see turn out to be a flame of hell that will burn us to the stake? I mean after all, Adam & Eve were told not to eat the apple -- and we all know how that turned out.

       We live our lives in hopes of what is to come. When we are little we can’t wait to play outside without our parents permission or be able to stay out past 7 p.m. We get a little older and once we accomplish those things, we want more. We dream of our first kiss. Of earning our license, driving our own car. Getting our first paycheck, being able to order our first legal drink, maybe fall in love, and you get the idea. 
       Yes, we want these things. The difference is, we rest assured that we will one day obtain them. When we are 16 we know “Oh my God, just one more year and I’ll be driving.” When we are 20 we know “This time next year I’ll be out at a bar instead of sneaking beers into my parents basement.”

       Now what about the things we want so bad and it is completely unsure if you’ll ever even get a taste of calling it your own? Or even more horrifying, knowing...for almost certain...that you can see it, feel it, be by it, but no no no, you will never get it.

       What to do, what to do? Well, most would probably think “Well if you know you can’t have it, than move on and find other things.” Seems pretty simple enough to do, right? Wrong.

       We live in a society of proving people wrong, reaching for the impossible, and getting what we know we can’t have. I mean come on, some people would say the high they get off of obtaining something that they thought they’d never get, or were told they wouldn’t get, would be more profound than jumping out of an airplane in the middle of winter.

       And aside from that, what if it’s unique, special, rare? It’s like having the rarest diamond in the world on a necklace and having it in a box in your room and you can never ever wear it. But sure, you can pick it up, stare at it, feel it, you can even hold it up and have your Pier 1 Imports lamp make it reflect sparkles all over your bedroom walls. But you can never tell anyone you have it, or show it off, or ever even speak of it. 

       Now, would you have enough self control to lock it away somewhere so that you’ll never have to see it and be tempted or tortured by the overwhelming urge to run outside and tell the world? And even if you did lock it up, does that mean you won’t mentally be wondering about it all the time?

       And being human and all, do you really ever fully let go of that tiny bit of hope that maybe the world will change for you and you’ll be able to obtain it the way you want? After-all, we all hope. Everyone hopes they’ll make more money next year, or land that promotion, or buy that yellow Lamborgini one day. Or have a loving family, or backpack through Europe on 50 bucks and travel the world. Shit, most of us will still have hope we’ll be big movies stars or singers. And the good part is some of us will! But the rest will still live on that hope until they are using their walkers to get across the street to buy their pulp-free orange juice.

        I mean, hope is one of the most enlightening and natural feelings one can have. We prove the statement of “Hope is a good thing. May be the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.” So if hope never dies, than how do we shut off such a feeling that is so automatic and filled with nothing but good intent?

       Maybe these great things that knock on our front door, smiling at us, torturing us with their perfection and utter appeal are meant to test us. Maybe they are there to show us that we can live without them...and if possible, be happy without them. Maybe it’s a life test that you can’t necessarily pass or fail, but a test of strength.

       But who the hell knows, it could be a perfect imperfection. A masked devil in disguise. I mean, in the story of Adam & Eve, even the beautiful apple wound up to cause them nothing but trouble. With money comes problems, cars come accidents, hope comes disappointment, and love comes heartache. In fact, maybe the forbidden fruits are not forbidden because they appear to be perfect after all. Maybe...they are poisonous.

       But in the large scheme of things...it’s only by taking chances, defying the odds, seeing good and bad, and having trials of success and failure, that we ever really get anywhere in life, right? As they say, no good thing comes easy. And only great things come to those who wait or those who fight the good fight.

       If you have this amazing thing that you may not be able to obtain now...in the dog-eat-dog, shark infested, world we live in...if you don’t fight to get it than you best believe that someone else sure will.

       So I say, if it means that much to you, put on all your armor, grab all the weapons out of your arsenal and go full force ahead and fight for it. Life is way too short to let something great pass you by because you’re scared of the outcome. Either way you’ll come out alive and probably stronger...perhaps with a few cuts and scrapes. So fight to get there and try the forbidden fruit. It may be the best thing that ever happened to you.

       And if it turns out to be poisonous...they make antidotes for that now anyway.