Special Post #2

1. When I think how far the onion has traveled
just to enter my stew today, I could kneel and praise
all small forgotten miracles,
crackly paper peeling on the drainboard,
pearly layers in smooth agreement,
the way knife enters onion
and onion falls apart on the chopping block,
a history revealed.

And I would never scold the onion
for causing tears.
It is right that tears fall
for something small and forgotten.
How at meal, we sit to eat,
commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma
but never on the translucence of onion,
now limp, now divided,
or its traditionally honorable career:
For the sake of others,
disappear.
2. This story needs to be interpreted because it’s important to our lives. We should respect the onion just like we respect our life. Even if we don’t like onions, they’re over 5000 years old and have a history to share. There’s a deeper meaning behind this poem that I feel needs to be shared because it is easy to look past this poem.
3. From the beginning line of the traveling onion, “When I think how far the onion has traveled”, I begin to think about my own life. When I think about my life and think of how I have been through everything I’ve been through it makes my own travels seem first line worthy. Our travels make us who we are, and it’s the traveling we’ve done that bring importance and meaning to our lives. And to know that our traveling is not yet finished gives more meaning to our lives, and the life of a simple onion. I’m not sure what an onion has had to go through in the stages of development and I highly doubt it has truly been anything like the life I have had, but even in our difference we are both part of God’s creations. When it says “All small forgotten miracles” it makes me reflect on the forgotten miracles I’ve had in my life. At a point I think of miracles like just being alive. It’s a huge miracle but we forget it. We forget that we take breathes every day. There have been so many times that I take things for granted and do not even realize it. I miss the beauty nature sometimes has to offer, or the story an onion has to tell. One of my favorite lines in the traveling onion is “pearly layers in smooth agreement” party because of the way it sounds. It has a ring to it that feels good falling from my tongue. And later on it says “a history revealed” just like the layers in agreement, it’s the years of our life that we have. The layers represent the years on this earth. Just like a tree has rings, sitting on the bench at Circle B Nature Reserve and someone asking about how to tell the year of a tree. Just like a knife enters an onion or they send a needle through the tree, that’s what God does with our lives, he’s are sharpening tool, he’s everything. “A history revealed” Those are probably the three strongest words in the whole poem. I look back on the history of onions and it’s like a story. It is like our life exposed. I may hate onions but I respect what they do and in my eyes I respect what they stand for. Many people especially in our class and the world don’t understand the true meaning of an onion in the grasp of an onion meaning life.
4. Just like us, in the way that we want to create a legacy in whatever you do whether it is in sports like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan, or in business like Jack Welch or Jim Collins, or in poetry like William Shakespeare, onions too leave a legacy. When I was researching onions I found out more about what Naomi was saying about onions being worshipped in Egypt. In the temples of gods, onions are always present. What the Egyptians saw in the onions were eternal life in the anatomy of onion because of its layers. Just like the years of our life we have our moments, we have our days that shake us to the core and make us cry. She says in the poem “I would never scold an onion for causing tears.” When I think about that it was hard to come up with an analogy of what I could say to this to be honest. And I’ve been thinking and thinking and the scolding of an onion could be the stress of our life. It could be the trials we go through, it could be demons we face. The one that’s close to me right now is the fallen heart feeling that I rushed right through the moments that I should have been paying attention. Looking back on the years or layers of my life I wish I took time to recognize some of the layers that I have missed. The moments of where my grandma could give advice or the walls I built up didn’t push the ones I really cared away; the moments where I let my addictions control my life. No matter how careful I was, there was a sense that I had missed something, just like a stew needs onions to reach to taste of perfection, I realize I missed a couple layers of onions in my life. It’s a feeling under my skin that I didn’t experience it at all.

5. Interpreting the story of the onion matters to me because onions are something I work with everyday and I tend to cry like a baby when I cut them. After reading the poem I had to cut onions the next morning. I actually went through it and did what professor Corrigan did in class. I spent extra time with it. In doing so I spent too much time with it and the day didn’t go so good but me cutting the onion symbolized the life I’m about to lead, or layer of life which graduating college and going to a new beginning. The onion has really opened my eyes in a way that I didn’t think an onion could do. I’ve always looked at it as nasty and gross and now I look at it with purpose.

6. 952 without poem 1071 with poem.

7. Numbers 11:5, www.foodreference.com/html/onions-history-of-onions.html. I talked about the sources in the paper I didn’t know if you wanted to know more or just the citations. So I just did the citations.