Spoons and Forks
Short contemplative tale on minute choices and their consequences.
A guy walks into a store. He needs a spoon for his kitchen, the salesman sells him a spoon in a box. So he says. Not knowing really that the spoon in the box is actually a fork. Peter goes home ( the guy who bought the "spoon") and puts the box in his cupboard where he puts his utensils. He forgets about the whole thing after all he needed a "spoon" so he got one and that’s over. 3 nights pass and peter decides to make dinner for his girlfriend, the night is perfect. Candle light, perfume, smiles, chit-chat , in between stares that are full of admiration and all that stuff that’s boy and girly. Peter and his girl decide to have some ice-cream while watching T.V. So being a romantic guy and all, he brings one spoon but his girl is not that keen on sharing his saliva this way. Reluctantly he goes to the kitchen to look for a spoon and then our good friend remembers that he went to the store to buy a spoon. He opens the cupboard and reaches for the box, he opens it and pulls out a fork. Now usually this wouldn’t piss a reasonable guy off, our good friend peter was one of those, a reasonable guy.
Peter enjoyed the rest of the evening forgetting his fork and spoon dilemma, he simply would return to the store sometime and report the mix up. The next day on his way back from work he pops into the store and sees the guy standing behind the counter. He explains to the guy the whole mix up, the salesman is totally apologetic. And gives peter a spoon and tells him to keep the fork. Peter walks out the store and opens the box, this time finding a silver spoon shimmering in all its basic utility. For the first time in peters life he finds himself admiring something as basic as a spoon, while walking he lifts the spoon in midair admiring its bends and its scoop. Little did he notice the 12ton truck turning into the street that he was crossing, the driver of the truck was too focused on the lighter that he dropped while trying to light his cigarette. Peter is knocked away like a fly who dodges into a fan blade. He dies instantaneously.
Now gathering from this short story or parable as one may call it ( if it qualifies ) we can conclude that a small mistake often leads to fuck ups of major proportions. Who was responsible for peters death. Lets take our friend the truck driver. Indeed he was negligent although under other circumstances he would never unintentionally kill someone, because there would be no one crossing the road without paying attention as to where they were going. If we were to take into consideration other variables, then we may say that the tobacco company that sells the brand of cigarettes that the driver smokes then we may say that, they are responsible for peters death. This argument is valid, but so far out of reach that it may seem even ridiculous to the uncritical eye, yet still within context.
Now our friend the salesman, before you condemn him in your mind and tear his imaginary head off proclaiming him to be a fictional murderer, lets look at his case scenario. It turns out that the salesman wasn’t booked for duty that day, and he was really covering for someone else. Can we say that the guy who was supposed to work would have done things differently, so can we blame him for being a representative of a store and simply doing his job. Or must we take personality and competence into consideration and say that the guy who was supposed to be on shift would have given peter the right box. Another case of should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. Before we ramble on, on another philosophical debate lets get back to our
friend peter.
Now you must be wondering what type of guy admires a spoon, a very bored one maybe. So maybe his ‘DUMB ASS’ should have been attentive of where it was going. Then again the average guy doesn’t exactly intend to be rammed by a 12ton truck.
One mistake sometimes leads to a roll over of mistakes: the truck driver, the salesman and our friend peter are all different people, from different times, world views, backgrounds. All different but brought together by a single mistake, I for one think that this mistake lingers in the air, the onus being on no one, so the next time you make sure, yes YOU!! Make sure that you give spoons and not forks.
( PS, DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THE BOX )
Peter enjoyed the rest of the evening forgetting his fork and spoon dilemma, he simply would return to the store sometime and report the mix up. The next day on his way back from work he pops into the store and sees the guy standing behind the counter. He explains to the guy the whole mix up, the salesman is totally apologetic. And gives peter a spoon and tells him to keep the fork. Peter walks out the store and opens the box, this time finding a silver spoon shimmering in all its basic utility. For the first time in peters life he finds himself admiring something as basic as a spoon, while walking he lifts the spoon in midair admiring its bends and its scoop. Little did he notice the 12ton truck turning into the street that he was crossing, the driver of the truck was too focused on the lighter that he dropped while trying to light his cigarette. Peter is knocked away like a fly who dodges into a fan blade. He dies instantaneously.
Now gathering from this short story or parable as one may call it ( if it qualifies ) we can conclude that a small mistake often leads to fuck ups of major proportions. Who was responsible for peters death. Lets take our friend the truck driver. Indeed he was negligent although under other circumstances he would never unintentionally kill someone, because there would be no one crossing the road without paying attention as to where they were going. If we were to take into consideration other variables, then we may say that the tobacco company that sells the brand of cigarettes that the driver smokes then we may say that, they are responsible for peters death. This argument is valid, but so far out of reach that it may seem even ridiculous to the uncritical eye, yet still within context.
Now our friend the salesman, before you condemn him in your mind and tear his imaginary head off proclaiming him to be a fictional murderer, lets look at his case scenario. It turns out that the salesman wasn’t booked for duty that day, and he was really covering for someone else. Can we say that the guy who was supposed to work would have done things differently, so can we blame him for being a representative of a store and simply doing his job. Or must we take personality and competence into consideration and say that the guy who was supposed to be on shift would have given peter the right box. Another case of should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. Before we ramble on, on another philosophical debate lets get back to our
friend peter.
Now you must be wondering what type of guy admires a spoon, a very bored one maybe. So maybe his ‘DUMB ASS’ should have been attentive of where it was going. Then again the average guy doesn’t exactly intend to be rammed by a 12ton truck.
One mistake sometimes leads to a roll over of mistakes: the truck driver, the salesman and our friend peter are all different people, from different times, world views, backgrounds. All different but brought together by a single mistake, I for one think that this mistake lingers in the air, the onus being on no one, so the next time you make sure, yes YOU!! Make sure that you give spoons and not forks.
( PS, DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THE BOX )
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