Few and many- either way is good enough!

 This is a common sight I watch in our garden.

There are some trees with few fruits; some plants with few or just one flower. There are trees with many fruits and plants with many flowers. Some trees give fruits seasonally and some plants flowers a few times in a year. There are some trees which give fruits only once in two years.  There are some plants whose stalk falls off the plant leaving no trace that a flower existed.

I sense a perspective that is dominant in societal thinking. It is possible that we think of the trees only when they bear fruits or the plants when they give flowers. During the rest of the time they exist silently. They might receive attention during the time of manuring or watering. This is a utilitarian view. The tree is valuable as long it can produce fruits or we can sell it a timber! 

This view has set into our consciousness from the world of management and consumerism. We value anything only when it is yielding or is productive. 

The poet William Wordsworth was moved by the dancing daffodils and saw in them beauty to quench his artistic mind. In the narration of creation in the book of Genesis of the Bible, God saw what He created as beautiful. It was not what they were to become which made them beautiful, but just their presence. 

I have struggled with the views imposed on society by the consumerist orientation that all things exist to be measured by the economic benefit. The bottom line is profit, success and impact. 

I feel moved by the birdsongs in our garden from early in the morning. The birds, several of them resident in our garden sing and receive no recognition or applause except from their counterparts. The birds sing because it is their nature to sing. During the rest of the time they are present. 

I wish we grow into an orientation to receive others as they are because they are our fellow humans. 

This has a larger appeal to consider. It is not for what others can do in return we befriend them, but because they are our neighbours. Parents of children who have developmental needs have the same challenge. Those children lag behind in development of usual skills. The failure to see the fulfilment of their expectations make parents feel weary and loose the delight  they ought to have in their children. 

The being of who we are is the defining virtue about ourselves. What we can do is a gift arising from the very being we are. 

The tree or a plant is cardinal, its fruits are flowers are incidental. The tree is not any less when it appears to be barren or any more because it produces fruits.

Our humane way is what makes us to be truly human in conduct!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)