Lessons from the Garden: Lesson Four

Lesson Four: Sharing is Caring!

(Contributor's Note: The sunflowers at the left are not actually the ones mentioned in this blog. Those pictured here are dwarf sunflowers; those of the taller variety are "Moonlight." For a look at the great, leaning sunflowers mentioned here, scroll to the bottom of this entry.)

While on top of the retaining wall behind my house recently, I noticed that the sunflowers I planted behind the wall bend to receive the most light. I planted them in a straight row, but if viewed from east to west, the sunflowers' 9' stalks can be seen bending alternately north and south. This leaning is symbiotic: each plant increases its own exposure to sunlight, while minimizing the shade that it casts on its neighbors. The sunflowers are so genious, so admirable! Rather than simply competing for more light, in their vegetative wisdom they cooperate, thereby allowing all to maximize their provision of light, a resource plentiful enough for everyone to enjoy--if they share. They could compete, and simply try to out-grow each other, but instead these sage flowers lean right and left to maximize the photosynthesis of all. :)

Moral of the story:
Enough! There is enough for all to share,
If share we do, and not indulge the drive
To lay a hold on more than what is fair;
Above subsisting, all the world would thrive.

The common good, to each and every one,
Is good, indeed, so why not it promote?*
It helpth all, while bringing harm to none:
"A rising tide will lift up every boat!"

The game of Life has not a 'zero-sum,'
For one's ascent dependeth not upon
Depressing one's own friend. Let us become
A people working toward a corporate dawn.

So help thy neighbors, help them, every one:
Divide your blessings, and their burdens bear.
In this, you'll find the blessings just begun;
Enough, enough: there is enough to share.

*For those not constiutionally savvy, this was an allusion to the Preamble, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."