Sticker Shock: The Unrelenting Expectation of Productivity

Do you read the fine print cautions and instructions when you buy something? If so, you know that these sound like they’re written by lawyers, even when the rest of the packaging reads friendly, exciting, caring, or like your best friend. This week, I bought some tomatoes for a salad. It’s hard to buy tomatoes, because it is so difficult to find one with any flavor. So, I splurged on some locally grown organic tomatoes. Last night, I pulled out all my salad ingredients, washed them, and pulled off the little stickers on everything. When I got to the tomato, the sticker had this statement on it: “For best results, do not refrigerate.” I was flummoxed. “For best results.” Do even tomatoes feel the constant pressure to be productive and results-oriented? Are they also living in a state of anxiety as they wonder if they’re being productive enough? Is there an organization system sold to tomatoes so they can get more done in a day and yield “better results”? Is this the ultimate sign of our “DOING”-oriented culture vs. “BEING”?

Let me just say: I prefer my produce to be stress free. I want it to be at liberty to focus in the important aspects of becoming the tomato it was sown to be. I want flavor, delight, and a complement to the rest of the tastes in my salad. I want ripeness, deeply hued flesh, and the earthy spiky scent of a tomato grown in the South in the summer. I want juiciness. But results? I get stressed just trying to come up with a set of productivity goals for my tomato. Should I expect it to yield more volume once it’s cut up if it isn’t refrigerated? My mind reels with the effort…

So, I ask you, can’t we let the tomato off the grindstone of productivity? At least one of us can sit back in the summer sun and just be, and feel the contentment that the being is enough.