Lesson from Cucumbers

Sorry I've been lax on my promise to keep this blog updated. I've been busy at home, getting packed up so I can move back to Columbus. For now, I want to share one of the lessons I learned while in Russia.

When I first saw whole cucumbers (orguzi in Russian) in a Moscow grocery store, I was rather taken aback. I knew that Russians are kinda big on cucumbers; however, these looked strange to me. They were short and quite bumpy, not like the long, smooth vegetables I'm accustomed to. Several thoughts went through my head. Are these really cucumbers? Do I eat them the same way? Will they taste funny? Despite my love for cucumbers in general, my uncertainty kept me from buying these odd specimens for weeks upon weeks.

The last week we were in Moscow, we had a picnic with Russian students, and the mysterious orguzi appeared as part of the meal. I tried a few slices, and they tasted fine. That Friday, I finally purchased a pack of five little cucumbers at the store, treating them just like I would an American cucumber. They were, in fact, delicious. I berated the fact that I had been too scared of the unknown to enjoy these vegetables sooner, especially since that Friday we suddenly had to pack and evacuate Moscow, leaving all our "fridge food" behind--including orguzi.

What I did with the Russian cucumbers is something I think we do a lot with people. We meet someone on the street that doesn't look like us, doesn't act like us, maybe doesn't even smell like us. Let's be honest about what we think. Is he really from the same planet? Can she think like me? Can he have anything in common with me and my friends? The fact is that people, like cucumbers, come in many varieties. That doesn't change the fact that we still share the same kind of struggles, desires, and needs. The packaging may be different, but we find, perhaps after a bit of digging under the skin (not literally!), that there is in every person something that we can understand and relate to.

(P.S. Russians classify the cucumber as--believe it or not--a berry, and sometimes use it in jams. So I was told.)