The Best Ones Are At the Top

“Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy... So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.”

I have seen this quote a few times on various Facebook pages and other places, usually posted by some girl who is fed up with being ignored by guys, only going out with complete jerks, or some other apparently failed attempt at procuring a mate worthy of their “amazingness.” Well, this one is for all those ladies that hang at the top of the tree waiting for the “right man to come along.”

I have known many good men who have walked by this metaphorical apple tree and seen the bright red juicy apples at the top and decided they wanted one. So they go about finding a ladder that will reach the top, but inevitably, there is never a ladder tall enough to reach the one he has his eye on. So, with the risk of falling and breaking a bone (or many), he begins to climb the frail branches, carefully placing his feet so his weight is distributed in just the right way to keep him from breaking the feeble boughs and plummeting to the Earth.

Finally, he reaches the apple he as longed for and plucks her from her sky-high branch. He feels he has won the greatest prize on Earth and cannot wait to take her home to show his friends the wonderful fruit he has procured. But, on the way down something tragic happens. He is descending slowly and ever so carefully as to not bruise his delicate apple, but then unexpectedly, the apple falls from his hand and tumbles to the ground.

Devastated, he rushes to the ground to try and rescue his apple that he so gently carried all this time, but alas, by the time he reaches her, she is whisked away by one of those who wishes not to attempt the dangerous climb, but rather picks up what has already fallen at his feet. Thus it happens, that the man who risked his life is left stunned, wondering why the apple fell from his grasp. Perhaps something is wrong with him, was he too caring, did he grip her too tightly, or say something wrong? Why, oh why, would she fall to the ground after all he did to get that dear precious apple?

That is just one possible scenario; another is that the apples friends think this man is not good enough for their beautiful friend and knock him out of the tree. The apple herself decides to wait for a better man to come along and stubbornly clings on to her branch, but the waiting is in vain and when she tries to attract the man back to her branches, he has found another apple that was grateful for all he did to obtain her ruby red lusciousness. Whatever the reason, this good-hearted man did everything right, and yet it still wasn’t enough.

I have never understood this and it will most likely baffle me to the end of my days. Girls complain that they can’t find a good man in the world and fear they are doomed to live their lives alone with dozens of cats in a house where the lawn is overgrown with rose bushes. Then, a man comes along and she is excited. He makes her laugh, treats her like a princess and posses many, if not all the qualities of the man she has often dreamed of. But then, for one reason or another, the girl decides he not handsome enough, he walks with a limp, has a weird laugh, his left pupil is slightly larger than his right iris. There is always some excuse. Then when this man is gone, they return to the complaining and wondering why men aren’t ever interested in them.

Then, in their desperation to have someone love them, they go with next guy that comes along and all to often, he is a complete and total deuchbag. HE treats her kindly every once in a blue moon, but always leaves her wondering, crying in her bed late at night while he is off doing as he pleases. But, she is afraid she will never find anyone else that will have her, so she sticks around for the few and far-in-between occurrences of affection.

Well, all I have to say is that while I am not surprised at this common reaction I see from my friends of the female type. We often do not realize when there is something amazing right in front of us until it is too late. Those who are lucky realize what they have before them and hold onto it for the rest of eternity.

Now, I realize this isn’t always the case and not just any good man is right for just any amazing girl, but may I just propose that we be a little more aware of the people that come into our lives, and really look more at who the person is than at what, or who, the person looks like. Every girl deserves a man who will risk the climb to get to her, but the man who does the climbing should be the one who gets the prize, not the guy who waits for the apple to drop at his feet.