Do You Like Your Sunflower Seeds With Or Without a Shell… and Does it Matter?

Whether you like sunflower seeds or not, everyone can relate to this analogy. Of course, if you are an avid sunflower seed consumer, you may be paying a little closer attention. When my son played baseball, I discovered that the art of eating sunflower seeds had sprouted down at times to the youngest player on the field. This got me thinking about how consuming sunflower seeds can tell a lot about a person.

Essentially there are only two ways to eat sunflower seeds (forgoing the placing of a handful on a salad, etc.). The first is purchasing a bag of seeds that have been deshelled and so all one needs to do it put them in and chew. The second way is to deshell them prior to eating. Now this method carries with it two subcategories of consumption.

1. Deshelling the seed by hand, by cracking them with your teeth first – typically one of the front four teeth – and then popping them into your mouth -OR-
2. Throwing a handful into your mouth and holding them like a squirrel in your cheek, then manipulating one at a time to the other side of your mouth, deshelling it with your teeth and tongue, swallowing the newly shelled seed and spitting out the outer shell…. Rinsing and repeating until all seeds in the mouth are used up.

Seems to me that the easiest way to consume seeds is to have someone else deshell them. Saves time. Saves energy. Less cleanup. More time for other things. Almost a waste of time to do it any other way.

Eating sunflower seeds that have already been shelled is not only the easiest way to eat them, it is also the simplest. A person who eats seeds in this manner is either, simple, lazy, or a genius.

The simplicity of having everything done for you demonstrates amazing time management skills. It is the fine art of delegation. Now, the person may just be lazy and not want to invest time or energy in shelling seeds. Perhaps they don’t like potential empty shells lying around having to clean them up at some point.

The challenge to the outside world is that there is a fine line between simplicity and laziness, and that may well be where the genius lies. Whereas, the simple person may have down the art of delegation and time management, the lazy person can appear to have it all together. The danger of the lazy is the ability to deceive others with simplicity.

Now, for you deshelled seed only eaters, you know if you are the delegator or the deceiver. We don’t. We may never know which one you are. But you do.

Now, the shelled eater. If you are the person that takes the shells one by one, cracks them, then eats them, you are a meticulous, detailed person. The small things matter to you and we can see that.

For you who also eat this way, but collect a pile of seeds, you want to be a simple person, but somehow you haven’t mastered this yet. We see you.

The last group. You who put a handful in and deshell one at a time inside your mouth then spit out the shell… you are my hero. This method not only takes time but takes the most energy. The payoff is what elevates you to legendary hero status.

This group of people take their time in life. They investigate and are meticulous, yet genius. Genius because they multitask (I mean have you ever put 20-40 seeds with the shell in your mouth at one time before?). Genius because, the art of deshelling inside the mouth means that we can see you… you squirrel cheek, but don’t know all that is going on in there.

This type of person it the one in business and in life who are not afraid to take risks. They know the time involved and are not afraid to invest that time. They know the end result only brings more.

Are you the kind of person who is simple? Lazy? Are you meticulous? Or are you able to multitask, invest a little more time and effort and enjoy the payoff while you are working?

I would love to know if you eat sunflower seeds, and if so, how. Perhaps a little deeper introspection into the why. Would you agree or disagree with my analysis?