{"id":3318,"date":"2008-08-18T08:45:56","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T14:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3318"},"modified":"2008-08-18T08:45:56","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T14:45:56","slug":"why-blackberries-are-bad-for-your-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/why-blackberries-are-bad-for-your-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Blackberries are Bad for Your Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>I went to Northern California recently on a business trip.\u00a0 I got too much done.\u00a0 Meetings, work sessions, proposals, emails, conference calls, and a few very memorable dinners. Four cities in just as many days. Before returning to San Francisco, I stayed with a friend in a small town up north. One sunny morning I decided to explore the area, so I asked her what there is to do.\u00a0 Knowing me, she told me there\u2019s a nice walking trail.\u00a0 I could walk there or drive.\u00a0 Well that was a no-brainer, of course I\u2019d walk.<\/p>\n

But I got thrown totally off track.\u00a0 What I expected to be a calm, relaxing, reflective stroll beneath California oaks, turned into a passionate, ecstatic, breathless plunge into excesses the likes of which I hadn\u2019t experienced in years.\u00a0 It took my breath away, melted all self-control, and spun my world halfway round.<\/p>\n

Oh, shame on you for thinking naughty thoughts.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the Adonis of the Litoral I encountered on the path (sorry gals\u2026 !)\u00a0 It was an unassuming blackberry sprig.\u00a0 Peeking out from the dried grasses along the edge of the path.\u00a0 Winking at me in the sun.\u00a0 I winked back, then looked around.\u00a0 Is it legal to pick a blackberry here?<\/em> I walked past it, choosing planetary well-being over my own base desires.\u00a0 That\u2019s probably the only blackberry sprig on this trail, and how awful would it be if I picked it rather than leave it for the birds or animals trying to earn an honest local living.<\/p>\n

But then I saw another sprig.\u00a0 And another.\u00a0 All of them full of heady, ripe, juicy berries.\u00a0 There was no end to them.\u00a0 They surrounded me, enveloped me in their fragrant temptation.\u00a0 They climbed up and up and over my head, each one juicier and heavier than the one before.\u00a0 I held fast, determined to leave this bounty for someone else.\u00a0 I walked up the path, thinking I\u2019d outrun them.\u00a0 But they teased.\u00a0 They wouldn\u2019t give up.\u00a0 The entire trail as far as I could see was lined with blackberry bushes. The branches hung low and heavy with fruit, sparkling in the brilliant California light.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I cracked.\u00a0 I pulled a berry off its stem and ate it.\u00a0 One!\u00a0 No, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred.\u00a0 Mathematicians have no idea what they\u2019re talking about when they say \u201cexponential increase.\u201d\u00a0 Within minutes my hands were black and purple, running with the juices of the sweet bounty that grew so naturally, so humbly, so simply, in the middle of this California town. There was no more trail, no more proposals, no more meditative reflection on the meaning of running a sustainable company.\u00a0 I surrendered instantaneously to the pleasures of the flesh.\u00a0 I maintained sanity long enough to think of my friend who at that moment was in her office, probably on a conference call.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to bring her some of these,<\/em> I thought.\u00a0 I gathered up two handfuls of berries, then stood there looking around hopelessly.\u00a0 I only had my Kenneth Cole handbag.\u00a0 No berry basket, no plastic bag, no container anywhere. No lemonade stands I could beg a cup from. I glanced down at my stylish handbag. Hmm.\u00a0 It\u2019s got an inner pocket\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

You know where this is going don\u2019t you.\u00a0 I am only human.\u00a0 Kenneth Cole had to be sacrificed.<\/p>\n

Without a second\u2019s hesitation the berries poured into the small, tight inner pocket.\u00a0 I walked gingerly on, trying to mitigate the effects of the motion of my gait on the precious cargo.\u00a0 I consumed several more handfuls of the sweet things.\u00a0 And then, as if in divine response to my guilty passions, I saw a plastic bag dispenser along the trail.\u00a0 Its intended purpose was slightly different from that which I was about to assign to it\u2014the post had a doggie sign on it\u2014but the bags were clean.\u00a0 Oh, and I was in heaven.\u00a0 I could not only rescue the berries in my handbag from certain death by crushing, I could pick more!<\/p>\n

There was one small problem.\u00a0 Some of the berries had already been pressed.\u00a0 And the cash receipts I had stashed there, that I intended to submit to our bookkeeper after my business trip, were completely, I mean completely, disintegrated.\u00a0 Wow, <\/em>I thought.\u00a0 Blackberry juice is potent stuff. <\/em> Would the IRS understand?\u00a0 The fact is, that didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 The impact of not being able to report one or two cash transactions had dissolved right along with the receipts.<\/p>\n

When my friend pulled up to pick me up, she laughed out loud. I was black and violet from head to toe, but the smile of contentment on my face was apparently priceless.\u00a0 And she got her several pounds of blackberries.<\/p>\n

And the Kenneth Cole bag?\u00a0\u00a0 I never washed it.\u00a0 I want the memories of that day forever embedded in the fabric of its soul.<\/p>\n

p.s. For all you eagle-eyed readers: why did I capitalize the word \u201cBlackberries\u201d in the title of this blog posting?<\/em><\/p>\n

Because more likely than not you will have confused the technology with its far more natural, ancient and enjoyable namesake.<\/em><\/p>\n

Happy Blackberrying!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Birgitte Rasine is an incorrigible blackberry fanatic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Image credit: Jef Poskanser at Flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to Northern California recently on a business trip.\u00a0 I got too much done.\u00a0 Meetings, work sessions, proposals, emails, conference calls, and a few very memorable dinners. 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