Conversations That Matter

Metaphors in prose……

I sent flowers to different people in my life and this is how things went according to their perspectives/lenses/views/beliefs:

I sent cut flowers of pretty peach to my environmentalist friend on his birthday with a card that said, “I am grateful for you in my life” and he said, “You know me by now you should have sent live plants.” I sent cut flowers of periwinkle and daisies to my Mom with a card that said, “I am so grateful for you in my life”, and she said, “Why did you waste your money like this?”

I sent a live tulip plant of yellow to my friend who is a master gardener with a card that said, “I am so grateful for you in my life”, and he said, “Do you know where these came from, how do they treat their employees, do they have herbicides and pesticides all over them?”

I sent cut roses of pink to a friend who is single with a card that said, “I am so grateful for you in my life”, and she said, “You know I cannot look at red roses anymore because of my last relationship.”

I sent a memory tree of willow to a couple who lost their pet who owned a large farm with a card that said, “I am so grateful for you both in my life”, and they said, “we gave the tree away because we really didn’t want the responsibility.”

I sent hand-picked flowers out of my own garden to my physician after my treatment with a card that said, “I am so grateful for you in my life”, and he said, “Just give those to my secretary, I am allergic.”

I sent rainbow colored live and cut flowers to a spiritual minister after my illness with a card that said, “I am so grateful for you in my life”, and she said, “I suppose you do not know but these flowers represent a belief I cannot condone.” While these scenarios are metaphors in prose, what can we learn about ourselves? What lens do we look through? How do we justify saying these things? Sometimes the lens that we look through creates division, superiority, uncaring, exclusiveness, intolerance, and loss. Some of us have triggers that cloud our current view as you can see in scenario with the roses. We see red roses when the roses were pink.