People Ain't Pistachios

The nut of choice in the Bierker household these days is the pistachio. There is something about having to work for it, cracking the nut and all, the makes consumption particularly poignant. Cashews are like Crack, overdose. Peanuts are just gobble-food. Pistachios however are a technique and a consumptive experience. In some manner, pistachios are like Grace. Free gift that imposes work.

In our container of pistachios, residing on the bottom of the canister, are the ones that my wife passed on. The sliver of crack was too small so she put it back in the hopper. Don't worry, she bought two bags of the salt and pepper at Costco last week. Another bag is in wait. Most of them are easy.

Yet, I like the challenge of cracking the hard nuts to open. I have tough teeth, built to take chiseling. I have better teeth than her. I lower my mandibles into the crack void and split the nut open to the promise land. Although, there are some nuts that just ain't worth  the effort. The prospect of getting them open is slim, the chance of cracking a tooth is possible. So, I toss them into the reject pile, with the spent shells that fulfilled their destiny. I am quite adept at cutting my losses. I have learned that over my lifetime. No sense holding onto something that you are losing. Let go. Bye. I can actually by quite stern about it.  

Yet, since I work with adolescents, I strive to view each young person as worth the effort. There is no reject pile. Truth be told, I would have been  in that pile if God's grace had not intervened with particularly proficient and caring teachers in college and good friends who stuck with me during the opening process. We all owe a lot to people who extended grace to us...who deemed us worth the effort even when our attitude and behavior imposed a cost of difficulty and sacrifice upon them that we may never truly know.  As it has been bestowed on us, let us give the same.