Thursday 30 January 2014

The Lesson of the Kumquat


When I saw these on sale outside a tiny shop in Frigiliana last week I was immediately transported to another time when MasterM and MissM were very small.

An elderly guest speaker at a school prize day talked to the children about the life before them, as most guest speakers do on those occasions, and he emphasised that life can be happy and sad, sour and sweet. The children were not listening because profound statements about adult life do not interest seven year olds. The speaker, who was a wise former headmaster, had anticipated this and, reaching into a bag, flourished a kumquat. "Look" he said "This is a kumquat, it is sour on the outside and sweet on the inside. If you are brave enough to bite through the sour skin you can taste the sweet juice and it will be all the sweeter because of the sour skin. There will be times in your life when you need to be brave so remember the lesson of the kumquat." And then he reached into the bag and taking handfuls of kumquats threw them into the audience and suddenly the children were scrabbling on the floor in their best Speech Day uniform, trying to collect the fruit and the parents and teachers were ducking to avoid being hit by flying citrus.

I told this story to the Young Academic and he was very amused. He had a better story, of course, about an academic who demonstrated a lecture about perception by hitting a bowl of trifle into the auditorium with a golf club. Apparently it was quite messy.

7 comments:

  1. I might use this. The kumquat lesson!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I much prefer the kumquat lesson to the trifle lesson!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lectures have changed since I've been to one. I'd love to see a law lecture livened up with a bowl of trifle though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Trifle? Very odd, but then, academics can be so.

    ReplyDelete
  5. the lesson of the kumquat. I love it x

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh and I agree with toffeeapple. academics can indeed bevery odd. at least the one that lives here is.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not sure I like the idea of a trifle lesson... most peculiar!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you! I love reading your comments and even though I don't always have time to reply I am really grateful to every one who joins in the conversation.