This life, it swallows you whole, like a hungry beast on an empty stomach, a vacuum pump set to maximum speed, a clumsy tornado in the middle of a murky sea. Yes, occasionally, it nourishes you, nurtures you, protects you, but then, it takes it all away when you're not looking. You start off with an intact apple cart but you may wind up with the messiest, most creative, piece of modern art you've ever seen.
So, as it turns out, when we grow older, we are all given one, an apple cart. Some like them red, some like them green. But because this is for information purposes only, and because colour blindness has never been my strongest suit, let's just leave it at that. Anyway, yes, we are all given an apple cart at some point or another. Sadly, instructions are not included in the receive one, get one free, package deal. It's just a cart full of apples.
If I'm being completely honest here, the metaphor was never about the cart per se; it was more about what to do with the apples. Throughout the years, I've met people who just sit around and wait for the apples to eat themselves, leaving them to rot as some kind of alternative statement (or so they think). I've met others who chop them up into small pieces, eat them slowly and steadily, and juggle the rest as they're munching away.
Then, there are those who are running out of apples, not because they are old, no, but because they, like hungry beasts on an empty stomach, swallowed them whole without savouring the juices first. Usually, the blame falls on life itself, that it is swallowing them whole, that it is what's choking them up. Of course, what they fail to recognise is that life only swallows what you feed it.
Nothing more, nothing less.