An Onion of mixed value

[Howard Wallace]

As I just finished cutting up onions for our New Year's meal of Black Eyed Peas and Corn Bread. When I cut into one of the onions I noted that a single interior layer of the onion had gone bad. The spheres both interior and exterior of the bad layer were untouched by corruption, but the bad layer was pretty rotten.

Having time, I quartered the onion and seperated the bad layer from the good ones.

The corrupt layer was far in the middle. Usually we expect things to go bad from the outside or from the inside. From the middle is somewhat unusual. Also interesting how bad one layer can be when immediate adjacent layers are fine.

That onion just started me off on a reverie, thinking about how people may change from time to time, being good on either side of a problematic time. Or traditions may be good except for a problematic area or interpretation.

There may be advantages in keeping eyes open for the possibilities of corruption in unexpected places, but also for the existence of good in close proximity.

 

[Karda]

Literally food for thought, howard.
Makes one think also of how even the most good, can have a bad layer somewhere and even the most bad can have some good inside. Things that may not necessarily be seen until the layers are pulled back and exposed.

 

[JayGoliath]

There was a Chinese proverb: For a worst thug to change over it's priceless.

It's irony how the social norm judge a person's action from good to bad and vice versa.

A person could do good all his/her life but once they screwed up and they are being judged/questioned....hm so they aren't really some who put their underpants outside too.

A thug who did all the nonsense and one day it's a 360 deg change into a good man and he was given the merit of it.

 

[Maniacal Pete]

Literally food for thought, howard.

That's funny, Karda.
I like onion analogies.
I like black eyed peas, too...

pete

 

[Maniacal Pete]

I was attending sesshin one time in the mid-1990's, and at the Shuso ceremony the head monk used an onion analogy to make her point with regards to Zen practice before the Dharma Combat test commenced.
She described The Path as peeling away layers, like in an onion.
One layer after another, with always another layer to be found underneath.
That analogy has always stuck with me.

Black-eyed peas OTOH, I like to cook with bacon, tomatoes, garlic, okra, green onions, corn and jalapeno chiles.
Kind of like a vegetarian chili, but with bacon...
Good with lots of cilantro, cheese and hot sauce on top.
mmm...

Food for thought, food for the soul.

Cheers,

pete

 

[Howard Wallace]

...Black-eyed peas OTOH, I like to cook with bacon, tomatoes, garlic, okra, green onions, corn and jalapeno chiles.
Kind of like a vegetarian chili, but with bacon...
Good with lots of cilantro, cheese and hot sauce on top.
mmm...
...

Vegetarian chile with meat. I like it! We do have a cookbook thread here in the Cantina if you feel like sharing your inspirations. It's linked from the library post.

Zen retreats ... how fun. Reminds me of a Zen priest I knew who scandalized the attendees by taking a pellet gun out in the early morning to whack little garden mauraders.

 

[Steve Tall]

One layer after another, with always another layer to be found underneath.
That analogy has always stuck with me.

Does this remind anyone else of that movie with Eddie Murphy playing a donkey?

 

[Maniacal Pete]

Donkey: Shrek, remember when you said that ogres have layers?
Shrek: Oh, aye?
Donkey: Well, I have a bit of a confession to make. Donkeys don't have layers. We wear our fear right there on our sleeves.
Shrek: Wait a second, donkeys don't have sleeves.
Donkey: You know what I mean.
Shrek: Oh, you can't tell me you're afraid of heights?
Donkey: No, I'm just uncomfortable about being on a rickety bridge, over a boiling lake of lava...

pete

 

[Steve Tall]

Shrek:For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example... uh... ogres are like onions!
[holds up an onion, which Donkey sniffs]
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes... No!
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry?
Shrek: No!
Donkey: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs...
Shrek: [peels an onion] NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
[walks off]
Donkey: Oh, you both have LAYERS. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. What about cake? Everybody loves cake!
Shrek: I don't care what everyone else likes! Ogres are not like cakes.
Donkey: You know what ELSE everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious!
Shrek: NO! You dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions! End of story! Bye-bye! See ya later.
Donkey: Parfait's gotta be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!