The Garden As A Metamphore For Life
What does gardening mean to you? I just discovered the garden as an awesome metaphore for life
OITNB Garden Speech
WhIle I was giving in to one of my latest addictions - watching the series ‘Orange Is The New Black’, I was left speechless when one of the main characters read a passage out of a gardening book to which I could really relate to.
I did some searching, and found out it was originally taken from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
Mathaphore For Life
I liked this passage so much, I thought I’d share it with you.
It sounds better when you read it out loud, but I couldn’t find a video clip that captured the moment, so the written version will have to do.
“The garden is one of the two great metaphors for humanity.
The garden is about life and beauty and the impermanence of all living things.
The garden is about feeding your children, providing food for the tribe.
It’s part of an urgent territorial drive that we can probably trace back to animals storing food.
It’s a competitive display mechanism, like having a prize bull, this greed for the best tomatoes and English tea roses.
It’s about winning; about providing society with superior things; and about proving that you have taste, and good values, and you work hard.
And what a wonderful relief, every so often, to know who the enemy is.
Because in the garden, the enemy is everything: the aphids, the weather, time.
And so you pour yourself into it, care so much, and see up close so much birth, and growth, and beauty, and danger, and triumph.
And then everything dies anyway, right?
But you just keep doing it.”
For some reason, I could really relate to that, and I assume many of you gardeners out there can too.
I’d really like to hear your thoughts
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So so true! I was just reading the other day, @goldendawne saying how personal her gardening is to her, how harvesting her medicinal crop is sometimes such a sad thing, and how she talks and nourishes and basically treats it all like her babies!
Plants are live creatures to me, and deserve the same as I would do for humans actually. Maybe more sometimes :)
Hope your garden is growing well!
I agree.
I could especially relate to the last part, as it perfectly described the rollercoaster of feelings I experience during gardening season :0)
I do consider them like babies too, lol. And last year, when three of my cucamelon plants died way too early, I was crying my eyes out when I was cutting away the dead vines, lol
oh noooo @simplymike! I have such a vision in my head of that one!😅
I'm pretty lazy at times. I wonder what the second great metaphor for humanity is? I don't think it a box of chocolate, or a bowl of cherries, I mean they are good metaphors in the right instance, but I do not think they carry the weight of Humanity in them like a garden. Those two chocolate and cherries are great metaphors for an individual's life, I mean what can possible be better than a chocolate covered cherry?
Do you think I would need to read the whole thing to find out what the second great metaphor is?
You know, I was so baffled by what I heard, it didn’t occur to me to question what the second one could be. Lol.
So I did a quick search, and apparently it’s the river.
I haven’t found any lyrical explanation (yet), but it has something to do with how the river flows, and how branches in a river force you to make choices... or something like that :0)
I saw a river reference also, I guess I need to add the title to a used book store run one of these days. Another list to create.
Lists... aren’t they the best?
Very good post brother, how are you, thanks so much, see you again brother
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I have never seen that show or heard this gardening quote before but thank you so much for sharing it! Honestly.. every single word is true and speaks to me
I got the exact same feeling :0)
Great quotes and I can relate completely. It is a constant battle against insects and pests but ultimately so satisfying when you come out victorious with a mountain of veg ;-)
True. And then there’s always the moment that everything starts dying on you... that’s the hardest part: to let go of what has brought you so much joy...
I'm not much of a gardener, but clearly the garden means so much to you because of the passage you shared. :3
It does, because so does life and humanity... or so I’d like to believe :0)
That is such an accurate description of life. Perfect analogy. Thanks for sharing. Your photo is gorgeous @simplymike
You’re welcome.
The photo is from Pixabay, not my own :0)
Still gorgeous. Post and pic
I love this quote! In case you haven't noticed from my ramblings metaphor is something I greatly enjoy. I am tempted to reverse that comparing the human lifespan to the seasons of the garden. I will spare you that.
An evil possum has murdered a few of my babies before they had their fair chance. Apparently he don't like watermelon much, that one is doing great. I find it amazing that you picked up on something so thought provoking in such an unexpected place.
It's always awful when the enemy takes away the fair chance...
Oh well next year I may add a fence lol
Hahaha... revenge is best served cold, lol
Yeah while the little devil is asleep. Give him a nice surprise for spring.
Lol
This is really cool. I feel this quote reflects what I was somewhat trying to convey in my recent post, link provided if interested.
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@nananini/human-nature-it-really-is
However, Ms. Lamott has put it in such a much more concise way and in much more eloquent, well thought out words.
Life in any form has its cycles..
Just read your post and liked it a lot. It is indeed like you say: life in any form has its cycles.
Thank you for taking your time to do so.
Always interestimg to find related posts like yours.