Trying to change the onion

Reader note: This post may contain onions.

When I prepare raw onion my eyes stream water and puff up like I've been on a day long crying jag. I can't see what I'm doing and worse it stings. Maybe you have a similar reaction? Many people do.

There is a lot of advice and folk wisdom about how to solve this problem. We can soak the onion in hot water before chopping it. We can part freeze the onion before chopping it. We can use a certain type of onion, a 'low-fume' variety. We can use a food processor, which limits our exposure to the onion. We can find someone else to chop the onion.

All of these solutions work up to a point. Most of this advice is about trying to change the onion so it won't release the fumes that set us off. The best solution I have found, which works every time, is to wear swimming goggles so the onion fumes don't get into my eyes. Rather than trying to change the onion, I'm changing myself, or at least granting myself the best possible conditions under which I will chop the onion. This solution has never failed for me. Better yet, it gives me sense o confidence about onion-chopping that the other solutions never did The other solutions work some of the time, creating uncertainty. The big 'will it work, won't it work' can become a problem itself.

We have to decide which problem we are solving. Are we solving the onion's problem of releasing irritant fumes? (Effectively 'blaming' the onion for our discomfort, and accidentally victimizing ourselves. It's not me, it's the onion... If only the onion were different...) Or are we solving our own problem of watery eyes when we work with onions? It's often harder to define the problem when we put the focus on ourselves and our own experience, (whaddaya mean I might be the problem? Don't look at me, buddy, its the onion...) but it is also often easier to solve. We are focussing on the aspect of the problem where we have the most power and control.

It was only a nanosecond after thinking this that I had a Blinding Flash of the Obvious: when dealing with other people and their irritating behaviors we are usually trying to change the onion.

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