Things I Think About When I'm Not Napping: My Name is Gourdon

Hi.

My name is Gourdon                    

and I'm a skinny pumpkin.

Yeah, all you string beans

and cucumbers out there

have no idea the social disgrace

that comes with being thin.

I've experienced severe feelings of

inadequacy and self doubt-

and I'm totally embarrassed that I don't fit in 

among my plump and portly brothers.

You can't even imagine how it feels to be passed over 

by everyone that visits the pumpkin patch.

People want fat pumpkins- rotund and rolly-polly-

pumpkins with weight and substance and a chunky build.

And little kids make fun of me.

"Look at the skinny pumpkin!" they shout.

And they run off laughing-

picking some orange, obese cousin of mine

that they have to cart off in a wagon.

At night, when I'm all alone here in the farm patch,

I imagine all the pumpkins that got to be jack-o-lanterns.

I imagine the care and concern that families give them

as they prepare to carve and decorate them-

and welcome them into their autumn celebrations.

I imagine their smiling, toothless grins-

their eternal candle glowing like a beating heart-

their presence on the porch beckoning trick-or-treaters... 

I become a little sad when I think about

those pumpkins being warm beside a bale of straw,

cuddled next to the neighborhood dog,

part of a group display that everyone loves.

I tried my best to be like all the others.

I drank extra portions of Miracle Grow,

I popped fertilizer pellets constantly,

and I even did push-ups when the others weren't looking.

But I turned out different than the others.

An outcast.

A blunder of nature.

A pumpkin good for nothing but the compost heap.

Oh- wait a minute...

Here comes somebody.

Hush a minute...

"Wow! Look at this pumpkin!" says a voice.

"Kinda skinny, don't you think?" says another.

"Oh- let's pick it. It will make the sweetest pie!" they agree.

So, I guess that's it folks.

I may not have been picked for a jack-o-lantern-

but I'm going to make someone very happy.

And that's what life is really all about, isn't it?

Monday, October 18, 2010