Love like mango

"You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes you just might find You'll get what you need" - Rolling Stones1

********************************2


I was the kind of kid that would hate any fruits or vegetables. That was the reason why when for the first time someone offered me a mango I said as politely as I could3

"No, thank you"4

After all, mango was considered a fruit! How disgusting!5

Little did I know it was all going to change really soon. I got older and a little, cute, and always polite kid that I was, suddenly became a rebellious teenager. Now the fruits were not only disgusting, but sold only for the purpose of making the humanity suffer! What about all the vitamins they have, you ask? Simple, it's all a lie! They don't have any vitamins. As you grow up you learn to adapt to things and you stop complaining and just accept everything as it goes. That's why nobody ever questions scientists and people who wear ties. They are the experts; they know everything. I knew sometimes they would make things up, and often they would just do it to make us miserable, so that we would be easier to control. It was all a part of a bigger thing where the government wanted to make us into zombies, and right now they would test how far they could go with simple statements like: fruits are healthy. Not so surprisingly, it worked! Everyone hates fruits, they would just say they like them, because nobody wants others to know they can be controlled like that.6

Another factor in this was fear. Nobody wants to get sick. When you're sick, you have to go to a doctor and possibly spend a lot of money. You might lose your house. All because you didn't eat fruits like should. So what they taste bad? They're good for you, and everything that is good for you has to taste bad. That's what we've been told since we were kids, when we had to swallow that nasty flu medicine. 7

Believing that more than anything, I always refused to eat fruits. Government and "tie people", as I called them, would not control me! But then something happened, when I was reminded about some of the many things my mom taught me; politeness and believing in signs.8

I believed I could read the future if I could just read the right signs, like dreams. Especially the dream I had when I was about 5 years old, and I remember up to this day. The dream where I was chasing a big blue butterfly, where I saved it from a snake just to be later bitten by it. Yet the butterfly was safe, it escaped the snake and helped me. It might have been a crazy dream of a little child, but how real it was, made me believe it was The dream. I figured out after thinking about it for a long time, a butterfly was something I secretly wanted, but I couldn't understand why it wasn't just a regular size butterfly.9

From the dream I developed my own motto "Follow the butterfly." Something told me it was the right interpretation, even though I wasn't really sure what it meant. Now all I had to find out was what the butterfly was, but what it really meant came as a real surprise to me.10

Then one day something I was afraid of, something evil, something that would eventually lead to a disaster, found me. I had to participate in an official dinner with people I had to make a good impression on. We ate some rice and I gave out a little gasp when I found out mango was going to be served for dessert. I had two choices; a.) Not eat the mango to protect what I believed in, yet make a bad impression and lose a lot of money, or b.) Swallow my pride, eat the mango, thank for dinner and possibly gain a lot of money. I chose b. After all it was a money driven world. My hand was trembling as I was about to put the strangely light orange fruit into my mouth. Everyone seemed to be looking at me, so I closed my eyes and put the piece of the fruit in my mouth. The taste was indescribable. Sweet, yet with a sense of bitterness, exploding in my mouth, nothing like i have ever tasted before. I felt like Christopher Columbus that has just discovered something totally new, yet known to people for thousands of years. I hardly stopped myself from shouting "Eureka!" on top of my lungs. I knew that's what I wanted in life, mangoes! It was a sign, another clue for my dream. 11

I had friends from around the world. One of them was a girl from Philippines who I would always tell everything. Obviously, I had to tell her my new found love for mangoes. She laughed and told me that that mangoes in Philippines taste even better than here. Now, not only I wanted mangoes, I wanted Filipino mangoes!12

That's when I met him, an average guy. His name was John, so common... He was short, which was perfect for me since I wasn't very tall either, and I didn't want to be with a guy who was a feet taller than me. Since when I talked to him for the first time, something clicked between us. We laughed about the stupidest things, making fun of everything including each other. I have never felt so comfortable around anyone as I felt around him, and I didn't even know him that well yet. I did my best trying to flirt with him, when he finally asked me out. It wasn't an official date, we were just friends going out to eat together. Then he walked me home, held my hand, and almost game a kiss. But how could I kiss him? I didn't want to love anyone or be loved, all I wanted was to have some fun, and I knew he was the kind of person I could see my future with. I didn't want that. No commitment for me. I was too afraid of that, too afraid of getting comfortable, growing up and being just like the rest of the sheep-people, doing whatever the experts would say was right.13

It made me feel better when he told me he didn't want any commitment either. Once again I was comfortable with him, without any risk of getting TOO comfortable. I thought that was exactly what I wanted, that is until I realized it wasn't.14

John was a born Filipino. He was so sweet, even though sometimes he could be a tiny little bit mean. I realized I didn't want to be with anyone else, I didn't want to even look at anyone else. He was all I needed. He was my mango, or even better, my Filipino mango. Then he came to the same conclusion as me, he didn't want to be with anyone else besides me. We were together, I found my butterfly, the one I would take a snake bite for. And I did, many times. I've been with him for 50 years now, during which I discovered a lot of things. Some of them were as basic as apples actually do taste good, but it's pears that taste horrible. So I eat apples and mangoes, not because they're healthy, but because I like them. I'm with one man, not because that's what society expects from me, but because I don't want to be with anyone else. I do a lot of regular things, not because it's what everyone else does, but because I enjoy doing those things. I went to Philippines, and tasted the mango in there. My friend was right; it really did taste better. As for my butterfly dream? One time when walking with John in the Philippines I saw the exact butterfly from my dream. It was huge, just like it was in my dream. It rested on a branch of a tree next to us for a couple of seconds and flew away. My dream, even though I didn't always expect it to be like this, came true.