When I was a young lad working in the fruit markets, one of my jobs was to stop the old lady ‘tyre kickers’ from handling the fruit that we had on display. Avocadoes were the worst – since the only way to know how soft and ripe they were …was to give it a hard squeeze. After the squeeze test, the fruit get bruised. And no one wanted those damaged fruits.

My grandson Josh is two years old. His cheek bone is just about table height. During a recent ‘night out’ at the local restaurant, he was getting restless towards the end of the meal. Being a quick eater, I had finished and so I offered to take him outside to watch the trains. Keen as mustard, he jumped off his mother’s lap and started running towards the door.

CRACK!

The whole restaurant must-have heard it – because everyone was looking. Josh had just run straight into the corner of a dinner table….right at eye height.

As ‘developed’ human beings, we seem to be fixated by preservation and the maintenance of perfection. We are afraid of getting damaged. When Shirley got her new car, she was scared to drive it – in case she got it scratched. I told her not to worry because like it or not, it was going to get some damage during its life. Soon after, someone put a ding in the front panel.

Lots of stuff happens to us between our birth and when we die. All of it will cause some damage physically and emotionally. But is that damage permanent?

If you have been racing at Lansdowne recently, the smell of burnt shrubs at the bottom section would confirm damage caused to the growth of the bush by controlled burning. Most Australians know that the bush thrives on fire damage. It is the catalyst for bush renewal.

Human beings are the same. We have to die before the next level of life is available to us. But between now and then, we are meant to wear ourselves out and sustain damage along the way.

When Josh hit the table, he bounced off and had a few quick moments to take all the other diner’s reactions in. Then he started to cry. Not for long though. He had trains to watch.

We went out and watched the trains for a while and he was his happy self. When we returned to the restaurant, everyone had a good look at him and he had a huge black bruise on his cheek. But he did not seem to care. His spirit was not broken. And he had the bonus of ice that the restaurant staff gave him to play with his bruised face.

Unlike everything that we can perceive, the spirit cannot be damaged. We cannot see, touch, smell or hear our spirit. So, it is immune to human intervention. And because we have our indestructible spirit, we should have no fear of any physical damage that we sustain along the journey of life. This damage is not permanent since it leaves no tell-tale mark on our spirit. Our physical self is meant to rot at the end – so that the spirit is free to continue its journey.

I should have let those old ladies in the market squeeze the avocadoes all they liked. Fruit is meant to get soft and rot – so that the seed is allowed to propagate.