From the OTL Archives (May 2007)
Last week I was in San Francisco, spending some time at a conference and the rest hanging out and having fun in this funky city.

My wife and I got to explore Big Sur, a glorious stretch of countryside squeezed between wild Pacific ocean and mountains. One place we stopped was The Henry Miller Library, and I came across Miller’s book Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.

Yep – I didn’t understand the oranges thing either.

But Hieronymus Bosch is one of my favourite painters, and on some investigation I found that in his strange and glorious paintings, oranges symbolized paradise.

And that association did not only occur in 15th C Netherlands. It wasn’t so long ago that oranges weren’t a ubiquitous fruit, but something rare and special – my Dad told me about getting an orange in his Christmas stocking in post-war Britain.

So as research for this article – and this is the sort of research I enjoy – I sat and ate an orange. REALLY ate an orange. And here’s what occurred to me as I enjoyed a brief moment of paradise…

What’s juicy?

There’s that moment when you first break the peel of an orange and a little explosion of orange oil squirts out and fills the space with that familiar smell. And of course, when you bite into a wonderful orange the flesh is full and juicy.

What’s juicy in your life right now? How can you get some more of that? How can you really enjoy it when you are there?

What can you share?

It’s one of the simple and powerful acts of community. Peel an orange, break it in half and offer the half to someone else.

There is something you have right now that would benefit from being shared. It may be a skill or talent, it might be material goods, it might be your time.

What will you share? Who will you share it with?

What do you remember?

The taste of a “squat, plump little cake” soaked in tea inspired Proust to go in search of lost time, so perhaps an orange can do the same.

Recall now a moment of paradise. It might be a vacation, it might be a moment with family or friends, it might be a time in the heart of a city or out in wilderness. Sit with that memory for just a minute or so – recall it and savor it.

(This, by the way, is a great moment of stress release – when you’re under pressure, close your eyes for a minute and take a 60 second vacation by recalling such a moment).

Don’t take my word for it.

Smart folks thinking out loud about finding paradise in your fruit bowl (or somewhere else nearby).

You can read the quotations here.