Vegetables+Punishment+Myth

Jaclyn Pontell, Jesse Bader, Maria Beyer

Once upon a time, not much life existed on Earth except for fertile grass and soil. The God of the crops, Cropacious, was in the mood for change. So, he decided to occupy his time by creating a new life form – vegetables. With one wave of his wooden wand, fertile vegetables emerged all over Earth. These vegetables were green, red, orange, and yellow. There were abundant and juicy and satisfied Cropacious, for now at least. Cropacious grew tired with his time for he had nothing to do. His vegetables were his most prized possession, by far his most remarkable creation yet. With nothing to occupy his time, Cropacious would sit around in his palace all day, wasting the time away. Soon he became angry that there was nothing he could do. His vegetables were able to remain plentiful on their own. Angry, he got out of bed and stomped just a little bit too hard on the ground. This caused an earthquake to rumble the surface of the Earth, uprooting all of his vegetables. Still angry with himself and completely unaware of his mistake that ruined the vegetable gardens, Cropacious continued to wander the lonely halls of his palace. After 3 days of nothing but staying inside, Cropacious finally decided he would walk outside, and observe the beauties of his vegetables once more. Much to his surprise, he looked across the span of Earth’s surface only to find that the soil was pail brown and unhealthy, and only half of the vegetable garden was alive and well. Fuming and extremely disappointed, Cropacious stomped down to Earth to observe the situation. Cropacious blamed the few vegetables that were alive and well for causing the death of all the others. He needed to punish them, and the first thing that came to mind was the complete annihilation of his once beloved vegetables. With yet another wave of his wand, he created a huge population of little kids. His theory was that the children would be so fascinated with the bright colors of the vegetables that remained that they would eat them up. This would not only eliminate the vegetables, but it would satisfy Cropacious, as he was still extremely mad that his vegetables were responsible for the death of others. Once the children appeared, the bright colors of the vegetables attracted them just as Cropacious had planned. They played and played with them until Cropacious demanded that they ate them until they were all gone. One child put a carrot into his mouth and chewed it, but his face scrunched up in a look of disgust and he immediately spit it out. Other children followed the little boys actions, but none of them enjoyed the vegetables. Little did Cropacious know that laughs and joy that the children spread were causing the vegetables to grow back again in plentiful amounts. Not only were the kids not eating them, but also the vegetables were growing in numbers! Absolutely disgusted that his plan did not work, Cropacious waved his wand one last time, in his last attempt to get rid of the vegetables. With a flash, hundreds of adults appeared on Earth. The adults were commanded to order the children to eat their vegetables. The children refused and would not eat the vegetables, but the adults, desperate to please Cropacious, told the children that vegetables would make them stronger. The children reluctantly ate the vegetables believing they would make them the strongest. From that day on, children are punished with the demands of their parents to eat their vegetables. Despite the horrible taste, to them it was just about being stronger.