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| Morning Glory from my own garden |
A meaningful life needs more than resistance to what is wrong. It also needs an affirmative vision of what is good, beautiful, and worth preserving.
Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit explores an interesting contrast between George Orwell's political side and his love of gardening. I finished the book today and wanted to share some of the thoughts it has left me with.
I read 1984 last year and, by the end, was both shocked and numbed by how closely it mirrors the attacks on language I see unfolding in the US today, along with so many other unsettling parallels. However, while he was confronting some of the darkest aspects of human nature, he was also making room in his life for the simple, tangible work of growing things. And not only things that nourished physically, like fruit trees, but also roses. And a flower's beauty nourishes something entirely different.
Maybe that's part of what drew me to this book. Over the past two years, I've been gardening. When the world feels overwhelming, there has been something grounding for me to focus on tending to living things and creating a little beauty in the midst of it all.
In the book, a story of Helen Todd and "Bread and Roses" strummed my heart. The idea is that people deserve more than just the bare necessities of survival. In 1910, Todd, an American factory inspector and women's suffrage activist, was campaigning for women's right to vote. She later recalled a conversation with a young woman named Maggie, whose family had hosted her during the campaign. When asked what she remembered most from the speeches, Maggie said it was the idea that women voting could help ensure that, "everybody would have bread...and flowers too." The phrase is said to have evolved into "Bread for all, and Roses too" and may have inspired James Oppenheim's 1911 poem Bread and Roses.
I've been reflecting on a phrase of my own: "Bread for your table, and flowers too." It brings to mind Jesus' words about the lilies of the field. He understood that we worry about the necessities of life, but he also directed our attention to the natural world, reminding us that there is more to living than the struggle to provide for and protect ourselves. Bread sustains us, and I love bread - ha, but beauty, nature, and maybe even the simple act of tending a garden nourish us in other ways.
Maybe my garden isn't a way of turning away from the world's troubles or pretending they aren't there. It's a way of making room for something beautiful in the midst of them. We should acknowledge what is broken but not forget to nurture what is beautiful. Orwell did.
Dear Reader,
May you have bread for your table, and flowers too.
Other Memorable Ideas from Orwell's Roses:
Beauty is not a distraction from serious work. It can be part of what makes that work worth doing.
A garden can be an act of hope. Planting something is a way of investing in a future.
Political awareness and an appreciation of beauty can coexist. Caring about injustice does not require turning away from life's pleasures.
The natural world has a value beyond its usefulness to human beings. Not everything needs to justify its existence through productivity.
The ordinary pleasures of life deserve our attention. Flowers, gardens, and small moments of delight are not trivial simply because they are ordinary.
Even people who confront the world's darkest realities need sources of joy. Being joyful does not mean someone has retreated from reality.
Small acts of care can have significance beyond their immediate results. Tending a garden matters even when it changes nothing on a grand external scale.
Hope is not always grand or dramatic. Sometimes it takes the form of tending something fragile and allowing it to grow.
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