Killing Me Softly

3/10/2025 10:36 am

Clematis socialis - Picture courtesy of John Manion's Facebook Page

 The singer Roberta Flack died in February 2025. Ms. Flack is probably best remembered for her lovely ballad "Killing Me Softly," written by Lori Lieberman after hearing Don McLean in concert singing one of his lesser known, moving ballads, "Empty Chairs," a song about a loved one leaving.  Empty Chairs is written from the perspective of the one left behind -- who failed to listen to or believe the expressions of the one who is gone.

Well, I don't know from perspective of the plants that I have killed whether I did it "softly" or "harshly," but I know that I've killed bunches. That's what gardeners do. We risk failure. True, some of us take more risks than others. We do this in conscious and subconscious ways. We plant something out of its zone. We plant something in more or less sun than we know it needs. We plant it too early. We plant it too late in the year. We fail to water. We over water. Honestly, it is a miracle when we succeed!

And it is the stuff of ballads when after we succeed, the plant up and dies. We are left missing something precious, sometimes not fully understanding our role in the process.

Orange You Glad

11/26/2024 5:08 pm

There is an old knock knock joke that is possibly one of three jokes I can reliably remember. 

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.