This is a guest post by glowingfaceman

Often times, the universe provides some kind of abundance for us, and we simply turn it down. Take an apple core, for example. Most people throw away the apple core after eating the main part of the apple. The fact is, the apple core is the most nutritious part of the apple. Of course, it’s fine to throw away the apple core, maybe you just don’t like apple cores! But in any case, abundance has been turned down, and just as surely as we do it with apple cores, we do it with bigger things.

Myself, for years I’ve had a problem with turning down abundance because of a lack of trust. In part hardwired into me by my parents, but ultimately for my own fault, I always assumed that there was some “catch” behind various offers and deals. You know the old saying, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”? That’s a big load of nonsense, there’s free lunch everywhere.

In undergrad, I used to joke with a friend that if we formed a network with one student in each department, informing the network when that department had free food lying, none of us would ever need to buy food. The statement, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, is meant to keep us wary of hidden costs in things, but we shouldn’t take it too literally. A more accurate version of the statement would be, “not every lunch is free”.

It’s good to be cautious when people offer you things, but it’s possible to be too cautious. When I was first joining the Air Force, I pretty much assumed everything the recruiters said was a lie. Afterall, isn’t that the stereotype? As a result, I dismissed the careers they recommended- linguistics or contractor- assuming that if the recruiters were hawking these careers, there must be some hidden catch. Maybe there was a hidden catch, maybe there wasn’t, but the career I chose instead, weather forecasting, certainly didn’t make me very happy. It’s impossible to tell what would have happened if I’d chosen differently, but just based on what I do know, I estimate there’s a good chance I would’ve been a lot better off if I’d done linguistics. (This was all long before I fell in love with languages)

When I assumed lies from the mouths of the recruiters, I was throwing away what may have been a very nutritious, healthy apple core. Sure, apple cores are a little tougher to eat- it would’ve been tough for me to challenge the stereotypes in my head and go with the recruiters’ advice- but it’s ultimately worthwhile, and you get a lot more value for whatever you payed for the apple.

Sometimes the hard, seedy, slightly bitter apple core comes in the form of risk. When it’s easier to play it safe, that safety is the tasty, easy-to-eat apple pulp. It’s still good, but it’s not as good as if we’d eaten the core. Accepting some risks is healthy, and leads to wealth and success in the bigger averaged-out picture, as long as we analyze the stakes clearly.

Sometimes the difficult, unappetizing core is in the form of fears. Making harmless smalltalk with a girl I like, is like eating the easier, pulpy main part of the apple. When I’ve eaten that all up, I can either bite down on the core and try to escalate the relationship, or I can toss the core in the trash and never even give the relationship a chance.

Other times, the apple core, which we’re so accustomed to tossing, symbolizes parting and farewells. When I finally managed to escape the Air Force, part of that meant cutting ties with a lot of friends. I still keep in touch with a handful of them, but mostly I had to say farewell. That was a tough apple core to swallow but the nutrition it gave me, Freedom, was well worth the bitter taste.

Maybe we should try to be more like horses. When a horse eats an apple, he eats it in two bites. First one hemisphere, then the other- eating the core and the pulp at the same time.

There’s nothing wrong with turning down abundance in specific examples. Maybe that particular form of abundance just isn’t congruent with you. But be aware of it as you do it. This is like, being consciously aware, as you throw away an apple core, that you are giving up some nutrition because you don’t feel like eating the thing. And most importantly, don’t get in a habit of automatically throwing away abundance. If you ever wound up in a prison camp, an apple core could keep you from starving, and you’d be wise to eat it all up.

Remember that the entire apple, as well as hundreds of other apples and the whole entire apple tree, were all originally contained in a single apple core.

Photo courtesy of Craig

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