Sunday, October 27, 2013

What Falls also Rises, Happy Halloween!

Have you noticed how wonderful Fall leaves smell as they decay?  
Leaves not only look lovely, they fill the air 
with that wonderful Autumnal aroma we associate with the season of the harvest. 
 
  The same is true of flowers, fruits, grasses, and pretty much every type of vegetation.  Ordinary areas are transformed into glorious works of art.  We gather, frame and create crafts with them, 
and the most precious perfumes are founded from crushed flowers.  
Decomposing fields and forestation give off a delicious, homey and reassuring aroma as they die...
....unlike anything that moves around of its own volition.
Now, while I respect vegetarians, I still love the taste of poultry.  I buy a huge turkey to roast every year, to provide turkey meals for weeks, 
even months after Thanksgiving.  
But, while I think it's fun to cut up and carve faces in pumpkins, 
the mere idea of doing the same to a bird or beasty, no matter the breed, 
belongs in the worst kind of horror flicks.
The burger I had at Joe's in Provo, was the best I've ever eaten.  And, I avoid it for the sodium and fat content, but what doesn't taste better with bacon?  
Sorry, but it's true! But...
I'm a hypocrite.  I can't bear to watch an animal--any animal--die, 
much less kill it.  I don't like taxidermy and stuffed animal parts hanging on a 
wall are just creepy to me. 
I don't have a problem with hunters, I just have a problem with hunting.
 This is a topic which leaves lots of room for argument, but, 
who can argue that the odor of a dying animal is horrid
and grows more unbearable as it decays?  
Even dead bugs don't emit a scent we want to hold onto. 
Butterflies are used in displays, but I prefer photos, not real dead ones under glass; 
and the method of preserving them is rancid.  Ok, ok, what's my point?  
It's simply this: there's an order to life that's self-evident in the death.
Some things are meant to die and return at a later season.  Every phase of the life journey, from tiny seed, to sapling, flowering, harvest and beyond, 
each day and season is remarkably lovely and full of promise.
But, a flower, piece of fruit, or tree branch can't look back at you, produce and raise babies, or love.
I'm sad when a favorite tree, shrub or plant dies, but I don't miss it like I miss my Gideon.  
My son raised mice for a year, and we discovered that even mice, every single mouse, has a very different personality and dogs do show emotion.
So, the heck with scientific research, and various philosophical and theological creeds,
truth's revealed in life and death.  
Plants are meant to live and die, only to live again. 
However, everything that moves of its own accord, 
like the rest of us, is meant to and is going to live forever.   
That's what I believe.

3 comments:

  1. It' so beautiful! I want to visit there some day in the future: )
    -Kelly in Jungchul school

    ReplyDelete
  2. I miss YOU, too ♥
    -Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  3. I miss you and Korea, too!! Please keep in touch!

    ReplyDelete