Say it with flowers...

Before the events of the past month and a half, I had a pretty cynical attitude about florists (and greeting card makers for that matter) -- it often seemed like holidays, special occasions, and even personal crises were being 'constructed' solely as Hallmark/FTD marketing tools and that purveyors of such things had been extraordinarily successful in instilling a pervasive sense of obligation. What's more, the fact that cut flowers wilted soon after delivery made me all the more skeptical. Although I still give the floral industry 'credit' for an effective if callously calculated marketing strategy, I must admit that I have developed a real appreciation for the ephemeral beauty of cut flowers. It seems like just about the time one bouquet fades away there is a knock on the door and another day-making delivery. There even seems to be a poignant rightness in the fact that the full beauty of the arrangement lasts but a few days...an apt reminder that in the big, unfolding process of life on earth, our own time lasts but a few days as well (on average just 27,375 days out of 18,250,000,000,000+). Timothy Leary (whatever else you might think of him) rightly emphasized the importance of recognizing "a thing of beauty in its moment" and suggested that that Portugese word saudade captured this notion well. I like the idea, whatever it is called. When flowers arrive I now find myself really looking at them, up close and in detail; smelling them and wondering where they originated and how they came to form. I find myself reflecting on my connections with the senders, on the trembling web woven out of crossing paths of personal histories and on the contingent and surprising course of events in our lives...in short, on things of beauty in their moments. Thank you all for the beautiful flowers and for your sustaining thoughts and prayers. Saudade! /dps