As human beings we have been given the power of choice. We can choose our surroundings, we can choose our interactions, we can choose how we look and in so doing we can choose how we are perceived.
But I have found that in most cases people in general fail to choose the way they grow in the world. As humans it seems ingrained in us to struggle for control of things we can’t possibly get control of and to ignore those things that we could. I recently spent about 20 hours in a car driving through the south east. As I drove along my wonderful and scenic route I noticed that there were dramatic similarities to how people and nature coexist. There are of course stark lines demarking corn fields and pastures and wooded tracts. These are tended by men sitting alone in a tractor, constantly vigilant of the borders of their control. There are those segments of land that were once clear-cut and decimated, that lie feral. These lush places are littered with dead wood, dense undergrowth, and many animals all balled together in a chaotic biomass waiting for time to dictate their place in the scenery. There are fields and prairies, lakes and swamps each melding into one another with splattered edges and fingers of encroachment. These places are well established and their boundaries’ have been shared for hundreds of years as the weather permitted.
But as I look beyond what man or evolution has placed upon the land I see two stridently apposed attitudes.
There are huge tracts of land engulfed in the invasive kudzu. These areas are much worse in my opinion than those fence tracts reined by the tiller. Kudzu sees only its desire and its dominance. It slowly moves to cover its neighbors with its needs and its will. Its fruit and roots expand it without check heedless of its destruction as it chokes its neighbors.
This virulent plant spreads its attitude in all directions like a gale on a calm lake. It is senseless, reckless and unchallenged. We all know a kudzu.
In stark contrast are the wild flowers they are everywhere; in dump sites, on dilapidated roof tops, reclaiming abandoned strip malls, and especially intertwined with those other areas. They even stand stately and revered alongside and within those stark boundaries of farms and fence lines. They happily poke their smiling faces from under the Kudzu that fights the fenceline, rock ledge or roadside.
I see these two types of people growing along the route of my life. I make a choice many times a day which one I will be at home, at work, and in my surroundings. I hope that the bright colors and shiny attitude that I feel in my mind is expressed in the way people see me. And I hope that we can all keep the kudzus at bay.
But I have found that in most cases people in general fail to choose the way they grow in the world. As humans it seems ingrained in us to struggle for control of things we can’t possibly get control of and to ignore those things that we could. I recently spent about 20 hours in a car driving through the south east. As I drove along my wonderful and scenic route I noticed that there were dramatic similarities to how people and nature coexist. There are of course stark lines demarking corn fields and pastures and wooded tracts. These are tended by men sitting alone in a tractor, constantly vigilant of the borders of their control. There are those segments of land that were once clear-cut and decimated, that lie feral. These lush places are littered with dead wood, dense undergrowth, and many animals all balled together in a chaotic biomass waiting for time to dictate their place in the scenery. There are fields and prairies, lakes and swamps each melding into one another with splattered edges and fingers of encroachment. These places are well established and their boundaries’ have been shared for hundreds of years as the weather permitted.
But as I look beyond what man or evolution has placed upon the land I see two stridently apposed attitudes.
There are huge tracts of land engulfed in the invasive kudzu. These areas are much worse in my opinion than those fence tracts reined by the tiller. Kudzu sees only its desire and its dominance. It slowly moves to cover its neighbors with its needs and its will. Its fruit and roots expand it without check heedless of its destruction as it chokes its neighbors.
This virulent plant spreads its attitude in all directions like a gale on a calm lake. It is senseless, reckless and unchallenged. We all know a kudzu.
In stark contrast are the wild flowers they are everywhere; in dump sites, on dilapidated roof tops, reclaiming abandoned strip malls, and especially intertwined with those other areas. They even stand stately and revered alongside and within those stark boundaries of farms and fence lines. They happily poke their smiling faces from under the Kudzu that fights the fenceline, rock ledge or roadside.
I see these two types of people growing along the route of my life. I make a choice many times a day which one I will be at home, at work, and in my surroundings. I hope that the bright colors and shiny attitude that I feel in my mind is expressed in the way people see me. And I hope that we can all keep the kudzus at bay.
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