Why I Don't Like Flowers — Specifically

Hi, folks. I want to warn you again, that I am apt to meander and may be foolish at times. Has nothing to do with acid and the sixties ... never did acid and I graduated high school in '72.

This is my disclaimer and I offer it ahead of time so that you won't be expecting a polished treatise or formal academic paper. I like to be paid for that type of writing, as it hurts so much. 

I found myself in a boiling cauldron recently on another post having to do with weapons and hiding weapons and carrying them around in bus stations and churches. It sort of became, well, uuuugly. I was told that my logic was convoluted and that I sounded like half of a conversation with a freshman in a bar ... that I liked to show off my ignorance and what not. 

Regardless of the merit of those comments, it forced me to rethink my subject matter. I think I mistakenly chose a subject many hold dear, an object of veneration, a sacred cow, etc. Specifically — guns. And it's true ... I really don't like guns even, though I have owned a couple. 

Someone said that I sounded like a guy who did too much acid in Vietnam. I didn't go to Vietnam. I actually was a conscientious objector to that war. I remember sitting with my TV tray eating dinner in front of the old black and white set my folks had watching bodies floating down the Mekong river. I remember seeing women floating there. Guns did that. It just didn't seem right. I remember Sgt. Calley getting in trouble for going into a village and ordering his men to kill basically everyone there.

I think they used guns. Maybe knives too. Who knows?

I was raised as a Christian believing that what Christ said was the same as God saying it. Quite often people who defend violence as a method cite Christ clearing the temple of tax collectors by whipping them with a rope. I didn't think Vietnam was a temple defamed by sinners however. And napalm sure was different than a rope. Aside from this single act of Christ's and its rather limited range, I am pretty sure the message was about unity, peace and compassion, not to mention turning the other cheek, giving your cloak as well, etc.

I just don't remember Christ saying anything about packing weapons — and vengance, when mentioned, was supposed to be God's ... if I recall correctly. As the late sixties and seventies were a very violent time... and I was in very formative years between Tet and the race riots in our country, the secret war in Cambodia and what not ... it was not acid effecting me.

I didn't do drugs.

It was inhumanity and extreme and ineffective response to the same. I know a lot of vets, several friends of mine were in that war and none of them is proud to have killed some Vietnamese person. My father was a decorated war hero in WWII and although he is proud to have served his country, he is not proud to have killed people or helped to kill people. I love my dad, but I also wish he didn't have to kill people — particularly civilians. However the "precision" bombing did kill civilians. Read up on the the fire bombing of Dresden if you are strong of stomach. The soldiers on the other side were mostly very much like him, youths whipped up by events that seemed monumental, by a snowballing militarism that is catching, by administrations and leaders that were the power in their day and by patriotism bordering on nationalism. 

But I am meandering. Recall you were forewarned.

What I would like to say here is that I am not going to talk about guns anymore. Oh, one more thing before I quit — I never was talking about duck hunting guns. I was talking about handguns, tactical weapons ... anything designed to kill humans.

Ok — I am back.

Flowers is my new issue. Wild flowers are OK, but cut flowers ... something about that really disturbs me. Why is it that so many people feel they need to carry and give cut flowers to other people? They do this publicly ... and when it comes to cut flowers, the bigger the bunch the better. It's as though there is a competition to have the biggest most effective flowers possible. Overkill, I say. One flower is enough to turn a lover's head if given at the right time. If it takes a dozen, let alone two dozen, and if the barrels — uh, stems — have to be long well then, in my opinion, that is either overkill or the person who is the subject of your delivery is very dense indeed. No, I think that small thoughtful gestures at meaningful times have great effect. 

The idea that the flower bearer is superior in proportion to the size of his bouquet or that his act is superior according to the same proportion is, likewise, balderdash. Size may count with bombs and extremities of various sorts, but lover's prefer how the gift is given rather than its physical girth when it comes to flowers. Imagine giving a lady giant flowers. It would be like a clown show. 

We can't outlaw flowers of course or the sort of flowers raised specifically to be cut for bouquets. The industry is too large and there are too many people trained to believe that they need flowers to be romantic. What I am thinking, though, is that we may request that people who have flowers on them — cut flowers, mind you, not wild — leave them in their cars, at least when going to public spaces. Its like students with guns. Students can have a car full of weapons but they must leave them in that car in the parking lot. 

Hopefully I am not igniting any wrath here with my simple opinions. I am not against flowers per se, but against particular overuse of them and am opposed to people brandishing them in public places.