Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

• Numbers 11:4-6

Note: This is the only verse in the NIV that mentions the word “melon.”

Okay, the Israelites knew how to complain.  I think Shakespeare got his idea of the winter of discontent (Richard III) from the Israelites.  No, he was meaning the War of the Roses, but the Israelites could whine and complain during any season.

Don’t we all?  All winter long, you hear people say, “Can’t wait for Spring.”  Then when Spring comes, the same people are sneezing and they say, “Can’t wait for summer to get here and all this pollen goes away.”  I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

When I was in the army, my platoon sergeant told me to not feel too bad when the troops in the platoon whined about the management, meaning me, the work we were doing, which were orders from above to me to have them do, etc.  Ask any soldier what his best assignment was and he’ll say that it is either the one just before this one or the one he is about to go to.  But as for the present, they will complain.

But Shakespeare’s winter of discontent has morphed into the summer of discontent.  I think that is when the air conditioning goes out or there is a brown out due to everyone running the air conditioning and the power grid cannot handle it.  Anyway, it is easy to get discontented when you are hot.

I love the winter.  I can always add another layer.  In the summer, there is just so much you can take off…

But there is one nice treat in the summer, watermelon.  I have enjoyed watermelon on three different continents.  We lived in Germany for three years, and when I worked in India, Thailand, and China, the breakfast buffet always had watermelon slices.  I would munch on the watermelon slices while the chef was making my omelet.

Note: If you go overseas and they have a chef fixing eggs, the universal language of omelets is to make the peace sign for two eggs (index and middle finger pointing upward) then flip your hand to have the two fingers pointing down and make a stirring motion.  Then you point to what you want in your omelet.  I pointed to the cheese and ham.

But now that I am by myself, I have a routine with watermelon.  I cut a round slice.  Then I remove the rind.  I cut the edge of the watermelon loose and then I cut the rind into four segments to easily remove it.  I will spoon out any good watermelon, if I missed the perfect spot.  Then I dice the slice.  I store the watermelon in the fridge so that the treat is not only tasty, it is cool and juicy.

My Dad taught me how to find the best watermelon, but it is not foolproof.  If you place the watermelon on your shoulder and place your ear on the watermelon, you can thump the watermelon.  If what you hear is a dull thud, the watermelon rind is too thick.  The watermelon will have less fruit that is edible and it will be chewy.  It might not taste very good.  If you hear a resonance, a “doink” with a slight echo, this means that the watermelon is fully developed.  The rind is thin.  Depending on how much resonance, it gives an idea of whether there is a lot of water there.

For the engineers out there, how do you check the wall thickness of a pressure vessel?  You use ultrasound to get the reverberation that tells you how thick the vessel wall is.  How does the urologist check to see if you have emptied your bladder?  Again, ultrasound.  Thumping a watermelon is the same thing.

But the thump test cannot tell whether the watermelon is rotten inside.  I bought a rotten one last year, from the farm to the table, briefly, to the trash.

My wife heard on television that you want a watermelon with a pronounced yellow spot.  This is pure garbage.  The yellow spot comes from the spot that is always touching the ground, thus the sunlight has no chance to turn it green.  All you know when you see a pronounced yellow spot is that the farmer allowed the watermelons to grow without turning them.  So, do not trust the “experts” on television.

But be careful with this tasty treat, the watermelon.  While it can be very refreshing, many people have a bad reaction from eating too much at one time.  You may spend the rest of the day in the restroom rather than enjoying the “nice” day – something that I consider hideously hot if over 70F (21C).

But it is all in God’s plan to give us the warmth and the cool.  It’s up to us to find something in the weather that we like that makes it a reason to give God the praise, instead of the complaint about the “bad” weather.  In this case, watermelon is one thing that makes summer bearable.  Early summer, since the watermelons from down South start getting too ripe in late summer.

Hmmm.  Now to think of something to praise God in August.  Hmmm.  I survived another day in the oppressive heat?  Nope, that has complaint written all over it.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.