4. Write a letter saying goodbye to an object you are throwing away

SUBMITTED PROJECTS

 Dear Banana Peels,

I was thinking about how many of you there would be if I piled up all of the banana peels from my life’s existence. You might number in the tens of thousands. A sea of soft, yellow, rubbery skins that one could jump on like a trampoline. Or maybe more like a slimy, smelly, blackened pit of fly-infested skins since it doesn’t take long for you to brown once your sweet insides are out. I’m thinking about you because I eat a banana almost every morning. If I’m at home, I’ll go gourmet and spoon peanut butter onto each bite but it is also my grab and go breakfast when I’m running out the door. A banana is such a perfect blast of protein, fiber, and potassium perfectly housed in you, an easily peelable sleeve. If one needs an impromptu prop, it can transform into a phone or a ray gun in an instant. Once eaten however, I of course have to deal with you, the peel.  When I’m at home, you can go in the compost bin, no problem, and your energy can be transferred into a sweet cycle of food making. When I’m out and about, you usually just go in a city trashcan and I guess that is not the worst thing to throw away because you will eventually biodegrade. That can still take a couple years however and maybe even longer in a landfill. If you go to an incinerator, that’s fine, right? Do you mind being burned? What does that feel like? Smell like? Any effects on the inhalers? I seem to remember kids smoking banana peels to get high but I never tried. Perhaps that’s just an urban myth. I know there are many uses for you though and I would like to give you the best possible afterlife. 

When I was staying in North Carolina a few weeks ago, I would feed you to the goats and they loved it. That got me thinking about what else I could do with you…. I read up a little and discovered that beyond getting goats in Queens, there are a number of other things we can do for increasing our usage of your existence. Apparently, I could rub you all over my face to brighten and hydrate my skin and reduce wrinkles. I could remove a wart by taping you to it overnight. I can also place you over my eyes to reduce puffiness and if I rub you on my teeth, you might make them whiter. When I get a sunburn, a bug bite or poison ivy, you could provide itch relief and if I freeze you and then put you on my forehead you could reduce my headache. I can even use you to clean my leather shoes and silverware. And of course I can eat you too like a goat. There’s recipes for you that take peels and make bacon and carnitas tacos out of you. So, you are not done after I eat your flesh. There are alternative afterlives and this is good to know. I will have to try these out and see what happens.

Thanks for all the fruit,  sTo