bananalibrium

Combination of "banana" and "equilibrium," describing the delicate art of adapting your consumption of a bunch of bananas to the slow but steady ripening process.

The first act of bananalibrium is buying the bananas. Too green: bad. Too yellow: bad.

You do buy the bananas when you can foresee a use of the bananas that is reasonably certain to occur in the next 10 days or so, before the bananas go bad.

Once the bananas are sitting on your kitchen counter, the next stage begins. To consume the entire bunch (usually 5 to seven bananas), you have to have a plan, and you have to stick to it. Otherwise, some of the bananas will go bad. And unless you make banana bread, the overripe bananas are too nasty to eat on their own.

So once the ripening process starts, you have to, maybe, eat a banana that is a little bit less ripe than you'd ideally like. Within a few days, however, you are in the sweet spot...the bananas are perfect. Then the brown spots start, and you have to up your game to remain on track. At a certain point, the bananas are a bit overripe, but you can still enjoy them. There is the point of no return when the bananas are just gone. Then it is a matter of avoiding having rotten food on your counter. It is a little bit sad throwing away rotten bananas. It feels wasteful. There is a hint of personal failure that might accompany throwing them away.