The Ubiquitous Banana

I must admit I never thought I would so seriously take a banana as to make it a subject of a blog. But I am. Every once in a while out here in the Bush, you just get a craving for something that you know you just can't have. Last weekend while traveling home from Anchorage, I happened to stop at a Starbucks for a latte when I spotted it - a banana. Beautiful. Perfect. Not a blemish to be seen. Oh, the temptation. It had been months since I had a banana. So, I asked, How much is it for one banana? To my shock and surprise the answer was $1.90. For one banana? $1.90 for one banana? You've got to be kidding. Somehow the words just seemed to spill from me. $1.90 for one banana. I felt one part of me saying, No way- that's nuts! and the other part saying, Why not? It only took five seconds of debate and I said, I'll take it. I've never really been able to resist temptation when it comes to food.

I took my banana to my seat and savored every bit. I convinced myself the potassium that I was getting was worth every bit of the $1.90 that I had just spent. When I arrived in Bethel, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things. There they were - bananas $2.37 a pound, but not as good looking as the one I had. I could resist. One banana would hold me for a month. And besides, mine was better looking.

I gathered up my groceries and headed back to the Bethel airport. I had a reservation on the 4:30 flight back to Kasigluk. Promptly at 4:30, the pilot appeared and called out our names for his flight. There would be six of us on this flight. I got in my little six seater plane to fly back to home when I saw it - a banana. The pilot had one banana on his dash. I pondered this - would this be bad luck? It's bad luck to take a banana on a boat. Is the same true for a plane? I must admit our ride back was a little bumpy, but certainly not bad enough to blame it on that banana. My day of bananas was done. I knew it would be a long time before another banana would appear in my world.

I came to school the next morning feeling quite refreshed after a luxious weekend in Anchorage. The day went by swiftly. No crisis. No dilemmas. No problems. It was almost 4:30 when a voice over the intercom said, Don't forget your fruit tonight. Frequently, our government sends us fresh fruit for our students who are junior high age and younger. Our high school students always grumble about this. For some reason, the government does not allow us to disperse any of the free fruit to our high school age students. Many times, I have heard them say, I wish I could have an orange or whatever it was we were handing out that day. But we only get enough for the younger ones. That's the way the government works. So, once again, it was free fruit for the younger ones.

I made my way to the office, and what did I see. Tonight for all - free bananas. You know, sometimes life just isn't fair.