“And in the hot sun, many flower bombs reveal their colors up top. You can tell who loves the pounding heat. But some of us are more subtle. We require shade, and perhaps a dollop of neglect to reveal who and what we are. Working on the fringes of cultivation, we create our own sense of order, and don’t advertise. Our audience is smaller. You might see our night bloom or renegade display, aimed to notify only those with superior vision. Children come swaggering into gardens such as these, knowing exactly what’s what. “Here is the hotel, the office, the emergency exit” says one. I trust him totally. His assessment of my work is important to me. He sees the pathways we want to maintain, and those that are secret or only known to those who deserve the privilege. Over here, “a dead end”. Back where the ferns are threatening to obscure all entry, “a loading dock” is indicated. It’s not hard to abdicate garden mastery to the ones who actually play there. Here is the one instance in which I have truly come to terms with being a janitor. Nothing brings me more success, than being told by a resident child that he is happy with the improvements. Dull pruners aside, and pushing past the endless irritating amounts of invasive sumac that plague our public spaces, I commit to keeping this play-space well maintained. Yet it hurts me to say this. That more than one of my best friends has been terrorized, or maybe it’s a longer list. Some of the most intelligent people I know are blithely letting the ship leave the harbor without them. My contemplation today, is this. That when we meet a small child, we also know him, somewhere in the cosmos, as an adult That’s why I talk to little people at my level, with certain simplifications employed. I can sense the trajectory of such marvelous beings. We would be fools to discount the wisdom of these inaccurate bean counters who are none-the-less apparently well informed. History tells us that the most humble among us sometimes rise to lead great revolutions. Which is what will be required to counter this absolute, “the emperor has no clothes” narrative being dished out on every single so-called trusted frequency. What is the proper exclamation for such a time? Perhaps #goodgod and all that implies.”
