From: sylvia m. (max@sentex.net)
Date: Sat Jun 08 2002 - 10:53:26 MDT
in the same vein as the money-desk question, i would like to ask what
i should have done in the follownig situation, or what the whole thing
means in the first place:
i was living in my grandmothers house, trying to learn about her and be
in her place. i love my grandmother and feel loyal to her. she taught
me about her garden, which she had tended for many years, and then she
pretty much stopped tending it but watched it acutely and understood it
more.
for example, she used to plant beans. she really liked to eat them.
but most years, bunny rabbits would come and eat the seedlings soon
after they sprouted, and she would have fewer beans. she did not mind,
she said the bunnies have to eat too. she did not want unnecessary
fences, and the ones she had let the light through.
she used to spend a lot of time tending the garden, planting certain
things in certain places, but by the time she was so old she couldn't
work in it any more, it was more or less to a harmonious point where the
stuff just grew by itself, seeded itself, regulated itself. it was very
beautiful, although rather messy. she used to put old licence plates in
the ground to keep certain types of roots that were too aggressive from
making new sprouts in too many places, and she planted garlic with the
roses, for bugs or something.
there were two problems. one, neither of us could adequately explain to
my dad that he should STOP putting weed spray on where he thought grass
should be. this was entirely due to broken cultural artifacts. the
rain drained to one low patch at the back of hte garden, and all the bad
chemicals went there, where not much grew and what was there was
scraggly. my grandmother an i referred to this as "the dead place".
the other problem was the vines that grew on the wire fence at the back
of the garden. they were zealous and hardy, and everywhere. they were
VERY pretty, but tended to take over and choke other plants. the vines
curled around the lilacs like pythons. the vines skated across
flower/weed beds so floridly and obnoxiously that other things became
weak. so she asked me to cut back the vines on the fence. so i did.
while i was doing this, a lady from the other side of the fence
criticised me, and said that she was native and was against plants being
slaughtered for no reason, that the plants were beautiful and i should
not cut them. i was not very nice about it. i pronounced loudly and
with conviction "My GRANDMOTHER told me to do this.".
i still have this niggling aweful feeling that i made a huge mistake
somehow but i am not sure how.
?
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