Lev Ilizirov
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They did not stand a chance
A while ago I was on my way to have breakfast with two friends of mine. I had already bought some croissants when I saw that a fruit stand was selling three mango’s for only one euro. The mango’s seemed quite overripe and I had almost decided that I was not going to buy them, when the store owner came up to me.
“You never know with fruit,” he said, “But if you buy three of them there’s a big chance that at least one of them is good.”
At the time it sounded very convincing.
But when I arrived at my friends’ apartment it turned out that all three mango’s that I had just bought were rotten from the inside. Without further ado we threw them in the garbage.
It is hardly recognizable, but I have been told it is a rotten peach you can see lying in the white bowl on this picture. Not long after the photographer took this picture, he must have also thrown it in the garbage.
But there is one big difference: The owner of this peach has led it to rot, while my mango’s did not even stand a chance. They did not get a chance to be eaten, let alone get a chance to be forgotten in the fruit bowl like the peach in this picture.
And that is far more dramatic.
One could argue that my rotten mango’s are not more dramatic. In the end there was nothing I could do about it. I was not responsible for it. It was just a question of bad luck.
But every time I lose something and that loss is completely out of my control, I am devastated.
Because there is no doubt in my mind that a feeling of helplessness is a far greater burden to carry than a feeling of guilt.