Plastic Flowers

(Free Article)

Plastic flowers bloom forever.

What need have we for ordinary flowers?

Ordinary flowers require constant care and attention.

Ordinary flowers need to be placed in the sun, need to be watered, need to be protected from pests.

Ordinary flowers bloom only for a short time.

Then they wither and die.

Who needs ordinary flowers? Who needs things that last for only a short while, need nurturing, love and care and then leave us,  never to return?

Who needs ordinary flowers when you can have plastic ones?

Plastic flowers need no attention, need no sunlight, need no protection.

Plastic flowers bloom forever. They never leave us.

Who needs real life?

Who needs a life of substance, of depth, of truth, of purpose?

A real life is hard. A real life is thankless.

Such a life requires an inordinate amount of care and attention.

Such a life requires struggle, doubt, uncertainty and hardship.

Such a life requires our love to be so much greater than ourselves. And to suffer the loss of so much more than ourselves.

Such a life is a lonely enterprise. It requires us to walk our own path without the validation or support of others.  It requires us to derive value, meaning and purpose from within ourselves rather than have the world teach us what and how to value.

Such a life is bittersweet because we gain wisdom only through losing. We soften our hearts only by facing pain. We taste the sweetness of life the closer we grow to death.

Not only physical death - but death as the very nature of all things - the impermanence of all life. The death of relationships, of personal successes, of friendships, of hopes and dreams, of great loves, of glorious adventures.

A real life is one in which everything we love and cherish is destined to die. Where nothing lasts forever. Everything withers and leaves us, never to return.

Who needs that?

Better to choose an artificial life. One that comes easy. One that values convenience above all else.

A life that doesn’t require too much out of us. That provides us with a feeling of certainty, rightness, security.

A life in which we find agreement, validation and support from others whenever we seek it. Where we assign value to people, places and experiences based on how the world teaches us we must. Where we learn to value even ourselves through the eyes of the world.

A life in which we need never love anything more than ourselves. In which life’s only purpose is to serve us - our wants, our whims, our wishes, our desires.

In such a life, we do not need to seek wisdom. Wisdom is inconvenient and unrewarding.

Instead we simply amass information. Information that is made more and more easily available and accessible by the powers-that-be. So we may never know a day of struggle. So we may never know what it means to “discover” truths for ourselves. So we may never unearth the vibrant life force pulsing through the veins of each moment.

A life where nothing ends because it is replaceable. And because it is replaceable, it is disposable. And because it is disposable, it holds no inherent value to us.

Disposable possessions, disposable experiences, disposable people, disposable relationships.

Anything we want, anytime we want it, anywhere, anyhow.

Better to choose the artificial life over the real one.

Better to choose the plastic flowers over the ordinary ones.

For the only thing the ordinary flowers have that the plastic ones don’t - is their fragrance.

That unmistakable scent in the air that says to all who can smell it:

“I am alive. I am life itself.”