Lured, on the way home from work, by the homemade "Plant Sale" sign pointing to Elmwood Avenue. Someone thinning out their own lush backyard garden. Scored some basics -- cannas (I don't think the ones I saved over the winter are coming up), more hostas and daylilies, some ribbon grass to hold in the soil along the alley. I resisted the phlox and the beebalm.I have no business, cash- or space-wise, buying more plants. I am officially addicted.
Up early tomorrow to help plant the Sunken Gardens ... though I'd rather laze in bed and then futz around in my own backyard.
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This is hardly the definitive article on why the blogosphere is so rife with angry outbursts and outright hatred, just one of many I've been reading lately.
Not that I want to see any limits placed on anyone's right to say whatever they think, but
I think the combination of mass distribution and anonymity is dangerous. The hatred that comes out from under cover of a pseudonym is just part, it seems to me of a growing trend -- the same one that, for instance, lets us feel so insulated in our cars that we can yell the filthiest things at fellow drivers or the galling lone pedestrian who dares to stray into "our" crosswalk.
I don't mean to be a Pollyanna. I think disagreement is not only acceptable in social discourse -- it's downright necessary. But can't it be civilized? Does it have to come down to blanket stereotypical statements about some perceived Other (Republicans vs. Democrats, hunters vs. vegetarians, drivers vs. cyclists, etc.)? Can't it be about what we think rather than who we are?
And the anger! It just surprises me, sometimes, how vitriolic people can be in addressing "virtual" strangers. Where does it come from?
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Has anyone else been seeing crows attacking squirrels lately? I've never seen it before, but we're having Celebrity Death Match in our own yard, day after day. Is it a personal vendetta between a single specimen of each species? I don't think so. I think we're watching Darwinism in action.
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2 comments:
I tried channeling you today when we went shopping for plants. I was so excited, yet so overwhelmed. I have to plan better and go back another day. I wish I had green thumbs (but, alas, mine are brown).
I told Jeremy we have to come visit you and see your garden.
You have HomeOwner syndrome. :)
As for Darwin, wasn't he more about selection within species, more than species combat?
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