Vitamix Providence

Matthew 20:22

But Jesus answered by saying to them, "You don't know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?" "Oh yes," they replied, "we are able!"

There is always that freak kid who likes vegetables. Like the kid who digs homework. 

I recall being stuck with all the other children after school during a snowstorm where the elementary school's cafeteria staff broke out the mushroom soup for an afternoon emergency meal that they must have not been able to be unloaded previously and only one child liked it. The bowls were lined up as he sloppily and happily slurped away.

As a kid, broccoli was my nemesis. I got the gag reflex just looking at it. One day I thought that if I buried the sulfuric and stalky greenery in Gulden's Mustard, I wouldn't taste the broccoli. The strategy worked, childhood was saved. The Gulden's also worked with brussel sprouts, cabbage, and any other foul-tasting vegetable. I was bullet-proof.

Eating vegetables has always been a weak part of my diet, like most people. About 20 years ago, I just drank a cup of V-8 each morning. I was mocked by my Dad for my liquid diet because, in addition to the V-8, I also consumed whey protein. I could have ingested a large amount of my diet intravenously.

I finally did the math and figured out the convenience of the V-8 was costly. Within the last 5 years, I have made vegetable smoothies. I am not one to try and make it taste good by adding berries and bananas and other fruit. Macerating the pulp just causes the sugars in the fruit to download quickly into the bloodstream and spiking the insulin which sorts of defeats the purpose of enhancing health. 

No, it is straight vegetables. 

The other days I finally decided to re-acquire a Vitamix. We had one when I was married but I decided to leave it on  the other side of the ledger when we divorced. Kind of a custodial agreement of sorts. In the interim, I used a Cuisinart blender which is a pea shooter compared to this Vitamix bazooka. I mean, you could use this blender out in the yard to chip tree branches, dead animals, and rocks.

Pulverizing is far too mild a word. The Vitamix simply annihilates the structure of the vegetables. It is an impressive display of horsepower and definite over-kill. But, it saves a shitload of time because I can make a 20 ounce smoothie in 15 seconds. This weekend I had a pea and wasabi smoothie and a garlic and broccoli smoothie. No muss, no fuss. Open the gullet and chug it down.

Even my Dad has come around on the wisdom of vegetable smoothies. A prophet is not accepted in his own family and country until the smarts prevail over time. To his credit, Pops has paid me homage for my superior insight.

So, here is the spiritual point. Life is not all sweet fruit. It is a lesson in reality the even though vegetables don't taste particularly good, they are very good for us. I think it is one of the tests of maturity when we start to consume vegetables, not because we like them, but we like the effect of consuming them. A bitter cup is redemptive. Sweetness corrodes the soul, bitterness steels it. 

The drinks I make are decidedly not delicious. I grow my go-to vegetables out in my garden, kale, swiss chard, and collard greens, all of which survived single-digit temperatures and a three foot snowstorm this winter. I am particularly impressed with the kale because it was totally unprotected against the elements. The other two, the swiss chard and collard greens, were underground in my subterranean greenhouse, essentially a three-foot deep and 6 foot long/2 foot wide greenhouse covered by a storm door.

Four of the kale plants eventually succumbed to the trials of winter but three kale plants survived and look like they are back in the growth mode. Anything that can survive such a winter has to be good for you.  

Drink the bitter cup. Let God's Grace grind it down