Friday, February 22, 2019

Just juice





A few months ago, I started thinking about juice. Orange juice, in particular.

Our family drinks a lot of orange juice, and we had always bought the small plastic or cardboard cans of orange juice concentrate which need to be mixed up in a jug with three cans of water.

This is not a difficult job, really: dump the concentrate into a jug, stir in the water. But it got to the point where I was making juice almost every day, and I was getting really, REALLY tired of it. (Note: "Just delegate this job to one of your kids," while a valid idea, is not the point here.)

I thought about how when we go on holidays we usually just buy large bottles or cartons of pre-made juice, because where we're staying doesn't always have the right jugs to mix the concentrate in. Pre-made juice is so much easier!

But somehow I felt it was wrong to buy pre-made juice on a regular basis.

If "wrong" seems like a strange word to use in this context, well ... when I look at it now, I see that it is a strange choice of word. But at the time, this was my reasoning:

Concentrated juice is the cheapest kind of juice, and buying the cheapest thing is good. 

Concentrated juice also has less packaging, and using less packaging is good.

Virtuous, even.

Buying pre-made juice simply for convenience's sake was all very well for special occasions like vacation. But to buy it all the time? That was -- like I said -- wrong.

But on the other hand, I also wanted to quit the tedious task of juice-making and just buy the stupid juice!

So I broached this subject to Richard, and, as I might have expected, his take was different from mine. Amazingly enough, he seemed to give the whole issue very little moral weight.

"Is pre-made really that much more expensive?" he said. "And anyway, there are always sales."

So the next time I went to the store, I did it. I bypassed the orange juice concentrate and bought a couple of large cartons of pre-made orange juice. Yeah, don't mind me, just throwing off the yoke, being a rebel, etc.

When I got home, I got out of the car and went up to the front door to prop it open so I could bring in the groceries. And there, in between the doors, was a large, unopened carton of orange juice. 

Turned out our neighbour had bought a couple of cartons of juice and it wasn't exactly the kind they'd meant to get (too much pulp, or not enough pulp, I forget which), so they  brought it over for us.

After my deep moral wrestling, seeing this carton of juice sitting there made me laugh out loud. It was like a sign -- HEY, FREE JUICE! -- telling me how ridiculous it was to attach so much moral significance to what kind of juice I bought ... and that I was actually totally free to buy orange juice in whatever form I wanted.

It's not that we don't need to address ethical considerations in our shopping and spending and consuming; these aren't totally neutral activities. But at times this can translate into tying ourselves in knots in an effort do what we think is the "virtuous" thing. "If it's inconvenient and tedious and cheap, it must be right." "If it's easy and convenient, it must be wrong."

But sometimes it's not a weighty moral conundrum. 

Sometimes it's just juice.

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Linking up with the Five Minute Friday community today, writing about the word JUST.

13 comments:

  1. Jeannie you crack me up! And make me ashamed as I’ve never considered the moral virtues of what groceries I buy! I just buy what I like and yes, usually what’s easiest! I love this post and I love the God wink you received through a free jug of juice! Cindy

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    1. Don't be ashamed, Cindy! I truly admire you for not moralizing over juice. :-) The funniest part is, though, that we found out our corner convenience store (which you'd expect to be more expensive than big grocery stores) sells pre-made OJ that is even cheaper than concentrate.

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  2. Oh Jeannie, too funny! Such a fun post!

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  3. I've tied myself in knots over those non-moral conundrums, too, Jeannie. How freeing to get to the point where you say "Yeah, don't mind me, just throwing off the yoke, being a rebel, etc." It's the etc. part that's best, because once you start who knows where it will lead!

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    1. It's so funny, Tim, isn't it? I am starting to feel that way about other things too -- things that are far more important in many ways than juice. And yet ... the feeling of freedom is still there! Maybe it's OK to hold THIS view about subject such-and-such. Maybe it's perfectly fine to believe THAT. Maybe it's not all about getting it right but being held, in love, by the One from whom nothing can separate us!

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  4. So funny how we can complicate - and get so bogged down with - some of the simplest things!! What a blessing to receive all the free juice:) Enjoy it!

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    1. Thanks, Jennifer! I appreciate your reading and commenting today. We DO so often try to complicate the simplest things - give them a weight and a value they should never have.

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  5. Thanks Jeannie, for the reminder that it's "just juice". We've had those very same discussions in our home and because stocking up on the larger jugs take up more real estate in the fridge, I keep trying to sneak in the frozen concentrate, but my family always guesses and says it tastes like it's already gone bad. So I've given up and now we're pre-made juice converts too. Thanks for helping us to laugh at ourselves :-)

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    1. That's so funny, Lori. Maybe orange juice is more of an issue in people's lives than I realized!

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  6. Love this, Jeannie! I use orange juice to make rice; use it instead of water, with a couple of teaspoons of margarine. It's good.

    And you've inspired a poem.

    It can be with so much ease
    that we're tied in moral knots,
    trying to find a way to please
    the One who calls the shots.
    We try to plan our virtue
    to impress our peers and selves
    and, dear God, to serve You
    as good and tidy elves.
    But our home's not really here,
    and we can't earn our way
    in straitened shoes laced in fear
    of a temporal Judgement Day.
    God seeks evidence, however slim
    that our hearts bow just to Him.

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    1. Your reference to orange rice makes me think of those old Minute Rice ads with Alice from The Brady Bunch. 😊 And thank you for that poem. It's a great reminder that all our self-generated "righteousness" is of no value, ultimately.

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  7. I know - to find that carton of juice inside my front door was just so random ... OR WAS IT?? Thanks for reading and commenting, Stephanie!

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