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Ted Baxter, the dim-witted, narcissistic newsman of television's classic Mary Tyler Moore, was in love. Only, in this episode, he was in love with someone other than his own reflection. Leaving the office for a date, Ted noticed a yellow rose in a vase on Mary's desk, leading to the following conversation...
Ted: Uh, 'Mair,' can I borrow your rose?
Mary: My rose? Yeah, sure.
Ted: Thanks, I'll buy you a real one tomorrow.
Mary: Ted, it is a real one.
Ted: It is? Gee, it looks so pretty, I thought it was plastic. Isn't nature amazing, to be able to make a flower as good as a factory?
Ted Baxter, a miser of sorts, might well prefer the permanence of a rose manufactured in a factory.
Most of us, however, would prefer nature's rose, fully aware of its vulnerability and, indeed, knowing that its beauty and fragrance are destined to fade. Indeed, much of what we cherish most in life is transitory; and...
...mightn't it be true
that the transitory nature of the objects of our affection
is, in fact, the very reason we cherish them?
Assuming the truth of the foregoing suggestion, consider its implications for love--so often represented by a rose.
(The kind plucked from nature, not a factory.)
We expend tremendous energy living in fear of the loss of love--whether platonic or romantic, by life or by death. This anticipatory dread of love's loss shows up as anxiety, sorrow, suspicion, demand, manipulation. It can appear as if we've taken nature's rose to the factory and dipped it in molten plastic in a futile effort to preserve its beauty.
What's your experience? How else does the fear of love's loss show up in you and, consequently, threaten to undermine the very relationships you fear to lose?
By contrast, how wondrous is selfless love, unencumbered of selfish fear? The transitory nature of life and love compels us to cherish, to nurture, to trust--to fully enjoy the moment, and this one, and this one. When we honor the transitory nature of life and love--instead of living in fear of love's loss--our moments will be filled with beauty and fragrance. Like a house full of roses. (The kind from plucked from nature, not a factory.) So, channeling your inner Ted, have you been yearning for a rose from nature, while insisting on a rose from a factory? Bigger picture...how is a rose an apt metaphor for life itself? What's the learning? Where's the place of maturation, of expansion?
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