It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.
~ Alexander McCall Smith
Just the word pumpkin aroused my curiosity because under my female pen name I’m writing my next story, Gotta Love Pumpkins, which is a bit of a companion to my earlier novel, A Pumpkin Kind of Love.
Eventually followed, no doubt, by “You have to eat your Pumpkin.”
Thanks PG, I’ve read the first book but long enough ago that I have it out of the library and on my phone. One small benefit of getting older is that you can reread books you know you enjoyed and they present you with a new experience.
Which book of the series is this from?
I’m not sure, D.
I just did a little online searching and it looks like the quote is from The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.
Here’s a quote from a reader’s guide for that book on the the Random House website:
As Mma Ramotswe wonders if Mma Malatsi was somehow involved in her husband’s death and whether wanting someone dead made one a murderer in God’s eyes, she thinks to herself: “It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin” [p. 85]. What philosophy of life is Mma Ramotswe articulating here? Why do the ongoing daily events of life give her this sense of peace and stability?
“Sometimes when you don’t feel normal, doing a normal thing makes you feel normal. Here. Start shaving.”