During a rainstorm, the pot holding a blooming Huernia zebrine fell off the plant stand and shattered. So did the plant, which is quite fragile. No worries this time, though. The plant shards will root easily and resurrect as about 10 “lifesaver plants”.
As I looked at the pot and plant, though, I thought of the fragility of things around us, including our and others lives. One misstep and everything shatters. A friend last year was doing everything right and got hit head on by a log truck in the wrong lane. Shattered. He recovered, but struggled for many months. The pot and plant make a perfect metaphor for much that is around us every day. I have written before about drinking the best wine first, and not waiting for the last possible moment in retirement to do “that traveling we have planned for decades”. Things are too fragile to trust to the future. The economy, the wierding of global climate, the scarcity of water in many places, the scarcity of food in many places, the decline of fish stocks in the ocean, the oil spill in the Gulf all illustrate the transitory nature of things around us.
So, don’t wait for the “shattering”. Go for it now if you can. The good news is that with a little planning you probably can begin to get caught up on the list of things to do/see/accomplish. The bad news is that if something happens, you won’t recover as easily as the plant. If you have a good bottle of wine, open it and enjoy. If you don’t, go out and get one. If you don’t drink, do something else, but for heaven’s sake do something before you can’t.
As I looked at the pot and plant, though, I thought of the fragility of things around us, including our and others lives. One misstep and everything shatters. A friend last year was doing everything right and got hit head on by a log truck in the wrong lane. Shattered. He recovered, but struggled for many months. The pot and plant make a perfect metaphor for much that is around us every day. I have written before about drinking the best wine first, and not waiting for the last possible moment in retirement to do “that traveling we have planned for decades”. Things are too fragile to trust to the future. The economy, the wierding of global climate, the scarcity of water in many places, the scarcity of food in many places, the decline of fish stocks in the ocean, the oil spill in the Gulf all illustrate the transitory nature of things around us.
So, don’t wait for the “shattering”. Go for it now if you can. The good news is that with a little planning you probably can begin to get caught up on the list of things to do/see/accomplish. The bad news is that if something happens, you won’t recover as easily as the plant. If you have a good bottle of wine, open it and enjoy. If you don’t, go out and get one. If you don’t drink, do something else, but for heaven’s sake do something before you can’t.
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1 comment:
I so agree with you Woody, having recently fought off the grim reaper again.
Sly
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