That's a bit weird title I know. Sorry, this article will not be about a free crypto token giveaway, some Steemit whatever competition or stuff like that. I will be writing about real-world cherries and about our preferences in the modern world. Boring? Might be, but I think some of our daily routines would use a mild reflection.
I have recently moved to a new neighborhood further from the city center. There are more trees in the streets, and the overall atmosphere is a bit more peaceful and relaxed. After 5 pm there is not much happening around. We have a little forest nearby, few parks and there is much more green than in the place where we have lived before.
In particular, there are many cherry trees around and because the spring was quite sunny and warm the fruit is got ripe and sweet quite quickly. I decide to pick few for my wife and my little son. They really loved them. I must say they taste much better and more genuine than the ones from the supermarket. Just as I know it from my childhood times. I picked only a cupful because I felt bad to pick them all. "Well I guess people around would like some too, I should not be that greedy!" I told to myself.
A few days later I just walked past the cherry trees on the way from work and I could not help it and had to stop. I started to eat right from the tree. I was so grateful this tree is here and that I can just get this delicious fruit for free. The cherries are very expensive this year, about an 80 Czech crowns per 100 grams (a bit more than 3,5$, might be cheap for the US, but it's expensive for us). After a while, I realized one thing. Almost no one is doing what I do. In the past few days walking by the cherries, I have not seen a single person picking them. I wondered why. In the Czech Republic, it is allowed to pick the fruits in public places such as parks, gardens etc and in some places people do it regularly.
Strange thing was that in the place where I lived before the fruit trees were quite scarce. There were two big parks and maybe 2 well accessible cherry trees, few wild prunes (plums), walnut tree and a pear. People there were picking them quite often. Just a few days later I realized what might be the cause. It seems that in my new neighborhood people are not that poor and they are either in their productive age, which means they spend a lot of time in their work or they are elderly and that means they either can go to their summer houses and get fresh fruits there or they don't have the strength and agility to pick the fruits from the tree. In the Czech Republic, it's quite common for people to have summer houses outside Prague. There are even dedicated gardening areas around the city. Why is this so? In the communist time, before 1989 people could get a donation from the state to build their house, so many people have used it to buy cheaper land and build a family house or at least a small summer house. This is how even people that were not that rich could afford to have a second house or at least a summer cottage. But let's get back to my original point.
I saw people buying cherries on the market here and then walking home past all the cherry trees around here not even looking around. It seems that it's just much easier to buy them at the supermarket and go home sit in front of the TV and eat them. I don't want to judge anyone here, I don't know about their individual situation. But I was thinking, didn't we became too lazy and alienated from nature? Maybe. And I realized one other thing. The cherries are not completely free, you have to spend your time and energy picking them and some people happily trade this for extra time in front of the TV, internet or whatever. This realization made me reflect on my own priorities. It's possible that I am doing a similar thing in different areas of my own life. Perhaps I am neglecting some quality time with my wife while playing with my PC, watching Netflix or by taking too much time on this post. So I am sorry this time I will skip the usual polishing routine and just release it as I typed it. It might not be perfect but I hope the message I wanted to convey got across.