Aggressive Vegetables

When I was going through the grocery store checkout the other day, the person scanning my stuff ouched and winced his way through the artichokes I was buying.  “Some vegetables can be classified as just plain aggressive,” he laughed.  I never thought of vegetables as having particular personalities and I liked the checker’s imagination.  Aggressive vegetables.  Just like some people.  Prickly.  We learn to spot them, the people who stride with a grimace on their face, rarely returning a greeting or a smile.  The people who gripe and moan about the misfortunes that life has dealt them, taking on the art of complaining as their beloved career.  Like the artichokes that I love so much, I bet those people have a soft, sweet interior — it’s there.  You just have to work a little to discover it.