Dino Papayas

Papayas often look like dinosaur eggs. Which made me weary when a neighbor gave me one as a gift. I didn’t know it was a papaya, I just knew it came from a tree and was larger than my head, reinforcing the likelihood of its possible prehistoric origins. It wasn’t, however, it was a papaya that motivated me to buy more dinosaur fruit when my neighbor set some out on his stand. The other day I ate half a papaya on my back steps. Besides papayas being quite delicious, if you happen to come across one as big as your head, half a papaya will fill you up, giving some of us hope for a desired slimness we were sure we were going to achieve coming to rural Africa. Anyways, I eat many things on my back steps as it has become one of my favorite spots. My back steps overlook many mango tress, a tree that in the dark looks like a Donny Darko rabbit, and mountains. Some spaces always feel safe even if for no good or particular reasons. Besides the view of mountains through mango leaves, the space from step to mountain horizon feels safe. Especially at night when the moon is particularly full and the space is mapped and squared off in un-artificial night lights. I think I always feel safer with mountains even if they are the slightly geriatric ones of Massachusetts. They always seem somewhat indestructible, that even if confronted with floods or storms of global warming, they would, will, and can, just shrug them off with teasing crevices of smirks saying “yeah your gonna have to try a little harder than that to make me give up my grounding and sky-high peaks.” Mountains can also have the pleasing effect of reminding you how small you are while at the same time promising to protect you. While its’ humbling to feel small, its helpful to feel safe at the same time, to feel along with your smallness that some force finds you worth protecting. Feeling protected can allow one to add sassy to small, affirming that I too, can give a good fight for and with my mountains. It’s a good combo when your feeling small to have mountains, papayas, and protection.