Ripe Is Better

I sometimes do things before I am truly ready to do them. I get enthused, I can be impulsive, I like to try. Sometimes I try too hard and too soon. Several years ago, I wrote a song called, “Cradle of Love.” I liked the song, but I always felt that someone else would be more suited to sing it: someone with a lower voice, someone with more upbeat style and rhythm. Let’s start with Etta James, Mavis Staples, Bonnie Raitt: just to name a few.  I recorded “Cradle of Love” anyway, on an earlier album of the same name. I thought I wasn’t “ripe” for singing it, but forged ahead anyway. This was nothing new in my life; I’ve done many things before I felt ready, such as going to college at 16 1/2. This wasn’t unusual for smart kids in New York City in the mid to late 1950’s. There was a program called “Special Progress,” referred to as “SP.” You would basically skip 8th grade, supposedly doing three years of work in two years: 7SP to 9SP. Did we really learn all that material in a compressed period of time? Who knows? But the program did ensure that kids like me went to college before we were ready.

How do you know if you are ready for something? And how do you get “ripe”, anyway? It’s easier to tell with most fruits. There is a little “give” in the surface, there may be a sweet smell, and the color of the fruit tells you what to expect. With people, sometimes it’s the evolution of maturity with time and experience that makes us ripe and ready. But some people can manage to age, to have lots of experiences, and still stay unripe and sour all their lives, to continue the fruit metaphor. For true readiness, something has to open inside us. This can take hard work, emotionally, vocationally, relationally, musically, etc. Just thinking about it could make a person start to sweat. Here’s “Cradle of Love”.