SQUARE MELON OR BLOCK~HEAD???

Square fruit stuns Japanese shoppers Japan has again shown off one of its greatest innovations - square watermelons. For years consumers struggled to fit the large round fruit in their refrigerators. The round watermelon is unlikely to go out of favour   And then there was the problem of trying to cut the fruit when it kept rolling around. But 20 years ago a forward-thinking farmer on Japan's south-western island of Shikoku solved the problem. The farmer, from Zentsuji in Kagawa prefecture, came up  with the idea of making a cube-shaped watermelon which could easily be packed and stored. Fashion food To make it happen, farmers grew the melons in glass boxes and the fruit then naturally assumed the same shape. Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan. But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities. Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon. "I can't buy it, it is too expensive," said a woman browsing at a  department store in the southern city of Takamatsu."  SOURCE: BBC NEWS ~ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1390088.stm Round melons in square boxes?  Square pegs in round holes?  This is an amazing true story of man's creativeness and ingenuity!  I like things like this...they intrigue me. And this story made me think about how similar my own life is metaphorically to these melons. Only the story of my life to date would be how I "outgrew" (weight wise) the parameters of the box I was in. I ended up not becoming who I could be and became way more than I should be! My corrupt nature doesn't want to conform to any sort of restriction.  I was meant to be a "round melon" and becoming square was well...too confining. No one should be able to tell me what to do, not the least would be the dang scale!  What is the scale anyway?  Just a bunch of numbers that screamed back at me at how round and un-square and un-conformed I was.  Dang stoopid scale anyway! Part of my personality is to be livin' life "large".  If that included a 54" waistline, high blood pressure, diabetes, walking with a cane, having knee joints replaced, being constantly out of breath and always depressed about my size...well no one's gonna tell me what I can and can't do!!! It was I who decided to wait in the car while my wife shopped because I couldn't walk without pain. It was I who took three hour naps every weekend because I was exhausted from doing nothing. It was I who always had to wait for a table to open at a restaurant as I could not fit in a booth anymore. It was I who decided...I was in control...me, me, me! Me...a very unhealthy round melon refusing to conform to that square box. If I'm not a "square melon" perhaps I am as Lucy Vanpelt called Charlie Brown...a "block head!" In part two of this post we'll discuss what filling up that square box can mean. "