Why are there so many kinds of pickles?

I went to the grocery store to get a simple jar of dill pickles. I stood in front of the grocery store shelves and counted 37 different styles of pickles to choose from. How could there be that many kinds of pickles?

Being that we are, according to the experts, in the midst of a serious economic downturn, this struck me as a somewhat humorous, as well as a bit counter-intuitive. Car sales are down, lumber and housing is down, banks are failing, the stock market is down … why aren’t pickles down?

This recession is, as repeated ad nauseum by the talking heads, the worst since the Great Depression. If this is true, how can I possibly have 37 different styles of pickles to choose from?  Maybe there’s some obscure law of economics that make pickles immune from the laws of the capitalist free market…supply and demand. Maybe it’s just cars, banks, Wall Street and insurance companies that are affected. If the Big Three automakers switched over to pickles, bailouts would become a non-issue? The UAW would become the United Pickle Workers?

But this microcosmic experience got me thinking. We — I refer to all Americans — have so much of everything, that we take our blessings for granted. When we want something, we go get it. Whatever “it” is, it’s available close by. We look upon our wants as entitlements…we deserve whatever ‘it’ is because we live in America. If, for some outlandish reason, we can’t get ‘it’ right now, someone is at fault. We then become a victim. And victims have rights. We have the right to get our damn pickle anytime our hearts desire.

I recently completed a nonfiction book, the subject of which is a World War II veteran of the aerial bombardment of Hitler’s Germany during 1944. I went into that subject feeling a bit smug about my knowledge of the war and the preceding Great Depression. I came out the other side of that project feeling ignorant and humbled.

The life this combat veteran lived during his first 21 years made me ashamed that I ever complained about anything. Hardships?  With 37 kinds of pickles to choose from? Most Americans do not have a clue as to what true hardship is. Of course, there are some that do. Not all of us have everything we want. There are the unemployed, the poor and the sick. And there are soldiers and airmen who sacrifice for us on an hourly basis all over the world. I suspect those Americans and Iraq and Afghanistan can give you a clear, succinct definition of the word hardship. How many of you go to work, school, or whatever, and come home with an arm or leg missing? Yes indeed, you go ahead and tell me how tough things are here in the USA. We have 37 kinds of pickles!

STEVE BRIXEN

Sandpoint