ovules

for some reason i am remembering a conversation a friend told me he overheard at the everopen cafe in fort collins. there was an old man and his grandson at a nearby table. the old man was intense, focused. his voice was serious. he said to his grandson, who was looking off vacantly, "what do you get, boy, if you plant corn?" no answer. "i said what do you get if you plant corn?" the grandson just stared at him, blank and bored. "you get corn!" the grandfather said. "you get corn, that's what you get." he looked at his young grandson intently. "what do you get if you plant wheat?" again no response. "i said wheat! what do you get if you plant wheat?" once again, the old man had to answer his own question. "you get wheat, that's what you get." if any of this was sinking in, registering at all, was not apparent. "now," the old man said, "what do you get if you plant hatred?" the grandfather sat for a few moments looking across the table at his grandson. i imagine a waitress walked by carrying hot coffee. looking into his grandson's eyes, the old man said softly "you get hatred." the grandson just looked on, maybe focusing on some spot beyond his grandfather, maybe looking at one of the customers eating toast across the cafe. "if you plant hatred, you get hatred." the old man narrowed his eyes. some glasses clinked together in the kitchen. "what do you get if you plant love?" the old man was serious, this was meaningful and he knew it. he knew it in his old age and wanted to save his grandson some pain. wanted to teach him what his own life had taught him. wanted to tell him before he was gone. "you get love." he looked at his grandson, hoping that something got through, that some of this entered his grandson's mind. "if you plant love, you get love," he said again, trying through some kind of osmosis to impart the lesson of his long life on earth to the young man sitting across from him in some anonymous cafe on the edge of some town full of anonymous people going about their lives. i think another waitress passed by, balancing a plate of eggs and a pot coffee while, a few tables away, two people got up to leave.