I worry sometimes that our expectations of life are leaning too much towards convenience. We like our grapes seedless and our chicken off the bone. We want every poem to be comprehensible on first reading; every new software application to be instantly useful; every human relationship to be effortless. We put up with a lot of mediocrity for the sake of ease, and we will walk away from the meaningful, the beautiful, the interesting, the important if it looks like it might be too much work.

Maybe we overvalue our own time and effort. Maybe we undervalue the things of this world. I don’t know. All I know is sometimes you have to gnaw the meat off the bone, or eat the fruit and spit out the seeds. Sometimes you might even find yourself picking crab.