Nobody’s Perfect

What do you think? Does one bad apple spoil the bunch? What if they’re all bad apples? Then it’s gradations of bad. An apple can look a mess but be basically okay. You know, edible. Not everything is a damn beauty contest.

Last week, a neighbor gave us the startling news that fruit trees needed to be pruned in order to keep producing decent fruit. Since the particular trees in question are alive just yards away from the shores of Lake Superior, I figure it’s a miracle they’re still standing, shaggy or no. If they yield apples, even ones that are only good for peeling, chopping and making a pot of applesauce, that’s fine. Pruning is probably not going to happen. I don’t need perfect apples. I’m not looking to open a fruit stand.

Still, I know that my studied negligence of this apple tree and its companion pear tree will bear sad fruit someday. I’ll go out there with my big hat to collect apples for applesauce and they’ll be tiny, wormy and rotten. And I’ll have only myself to blame.

However, because the apple and pear trees really have no business growing practically in the sand and I didn’t plant them there myself (they were planted by the previous owner, obviously a more intentional gardener than me), I consider their fruit to be found money. As long as the tree produces, I’ll make the sauce. When it stops, I’ll quit.

I’m not going to lead the tree to greater fruition. I’m just going to take what it gives me and not get greedy. Nobody needs more pressure. Me or the tree.