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On the floor in my office, placed next to my writing chair for inspiration, is a can of cranberry sauce. If it has been a while since you’ve held one, you might not have noticed that the label is printed upside down. This orientation makes grocery stores have to stack the cans with the can opener end facing down so shoppers can read the label right-side up. Why? I’ll let you ponder that question but will reveal the answer down below.
Speaking of direction, in my household, we put away our mugs and cups rim side up. I don’t know why we do it this way, so I ask my wife, Allison, while she is doing work on her computer. She said it is because they dry better that way. I later learn that my mother places hers upside down. Her reason is because it “keeps the dirt out.”
Online I find experts equally divided about this matter. Is one way preferred over the other? What’s the upside? The downside? To see how the other half lives, I tell Allison we should consider putting our mugs and glasses, at least from our perspective, upside down for a week. Her response is something inaudible.
I think that up is more favored than down, connotatively speaking. I’d rather be emotionally up than emotionally down. Still, you might ask me, “Are you up for a game of cards?” or “Are you down for a game of cards?” and I will know that you are asking the same thing, despite indicating two different directions. And if we do play a game of cards, and things look down because I got dealt a bad hand, I will look at the upside and remember that we are not playing for money and the only downside to losing is wounded pride.
But things have gotten flipped around because this entire essay was supposed to be about upside down!
I get a sense that you are fed up with this column. And thinking about being fed makes me hungry, so I get up and walk back to the kitchen, past Allison, and grab a bag of microwavable popcorn.
Like cranberry sauce, microwavable popcorn teaches us that the daily challenge of living is getting oriented in the right direction. One side of the popcorn bag indicates “This side down!” when cooking. I flip the bag upside down and see the words “This side up!” when cooking. Thinking about the instructions, I forget to actually make the popcorn and head back to my office. As I walk by Allison, who is still working at her computer, I ask her why it matters on which side I place a bag of popcorn in the microwave. She again says something inaudible, so I just go back into my office, where I keep that can of cranberry sauce for inspiration. Before things get even more topsy-turvy, I start work on an important question, admittedly inspired by the can of cranberry sauce: the etymology of “upside down.”
The first use of the phrase upside down appears in a religious work written by Richard Rolle in the 14th century. Rolle wanted a world where people placed morality and God above desires and passions. All shook up like Elvis, Rolle looked out his window and saw society doing the exact opposite! So he described the world as “up-swa-doune” from what it should be. It was a literary shakedown, if you will.
My foot nudges the can of cranberry sauce and I remember my promise to reveal to you why the label is printed upside down. It’s time to settle up! According to the manufacturer, the flipped can you see in the grocery store has an air bubble trapped at the top. When you open the can up and then flip it down and insert a knife inside, the air bubble pushes the log of cranberry sauce out. That’s what it all boils down to!
Dear reader: May you, like the label on a can of cranberry sauce or a bag of microwavable popcorn, find the right direction you need to go each day.
Maybe it’s up. Maybe it’s down. And maybe it’s upside down. But to do that, you will need to know which way is up!
Good luck!
