Carrots: The Answer to All of Life's Problems

by Mozhy Hosseini-Ashrafi 

We like carrots. Carrots are tasty, and vibrant in colour. A carrot is the perfect food; crunchy, sweet and full of nutrition, rich in beta-carotene, fiber, vitamin A, potassium and antioxidants. The carrot is a vegetable easily appreciated by all ranges of people.

Although usually orange, carrots can also come in purple, black, red, white and yellow. They have a single origin of Central Asia, from the wild ancestors in Persia. Initially cultivated for their aromatic seeds and leaves, carrots were presumably selectively bred to produce a sweeter root for consumption purposes. Later in World War II, Propaganda was also used to promote carrots as methods of improving vision in the dark, when city blackouts occurred. This myth comes from the substantial source of Vitamin A in carrots, which is beneficial for eyesight, however, carrots do not improve vision.

The solution to all problems; carrots provide food for the hungry, trade for the poor, colour to a boring salad and a title to rambling essays. Carrots can be many things, but they cannot do. They are an object; a thing, they don't have opinions to be considered. Carrots have no conscience. We speak so boldly about doing everything to make this one life we have count, but carrots spend their one life simply existing.  They are alive and growing, with offspring, adapted to survive and yet they don't have the ability to appreciate the supposed 'one life' they are granted. The simplicity of the life of a carrot is both beautiful and terrifying, and one we have not properly considered.

The standards we hold ourselves to are more the expectations of those around us than our own true aspirations. To quote the iconic song 'All Star', '[it] didn't make sense not to live for fun.' Ticking a generic box does not equate personal fulfillment, and we can't afford to live someone else's life when our own is so short. ‘Only shooting stars break the mold’ but no one mentions the isolation of success that being a ‘star’ holds.

What if all we were in life is a state of being? What is so wrong with simply being happy with existing. The drive to become richer, stronger, more beautiful is endless and therefore futile.The desperation to sustain some form of memorable mark on the earth seems pointless when you are not there to appreciate it. Justifications of existence is like a quest for treasure that may not exist. Sometimes, instead of trying to justify everything we see and do, we need to stop looking for these answers, stop existing and start living.