A few months back, when I walked from my car to the office building, I would see a hidden rose in the bushes next to the sidewalk. It was way back in there, surrounded by plenty of plants so it was hard to see. I only noticed because I saw a flash of red one day and decided to check it out. It was as perfect as a rose could be, and it was pleasant to look at. It gave me a moment of beauty before I punched in and slogged through my workday. I only looked for maybe five seconds each time, but it was enough. I'm pretty sure no one else looked at it. Everyone who walks up to that building watches the doors, probably because they know they're in for a shitty 8-hour day.
Naturally, the rose started dying. Its petals withered and fell away until only a bulb on a stalk remained, and soon that, too, was gone. I missed it.
Earlier this week a new rose appeared, and I was glad to have my moment of beauty once again. My life sucks. I know, that doesn't make me special. Still, we need to get our moments of beauty where we can get them.
Yesterday someone must have cut it out of the ground. I didn't see it go through the process of dying. It was there one day, gone the next, stalk and all. That irritated me. I liked it where it was.
Here's something you might not know about me. I don't get flowers for romantic partners. Never. There are two reasons. The most important is because I like them to remain alive and in the ground where they can be their most beautiful. I don't want to be responsible for their deaths. The secondary reason is because when they're in the ground, they're removing deadly CO2 from the air and giving us precious oxygen.
Wait, I hear you say. Why don't you get them fake flowers? Well, I did that once, and the woman I gave them to advised me that fake flowers aren't a good substitute for real ones. It's actually kind of tacky. I saw her point and adopted it.
So yeah. I advise leaving flowers in the ground where they belong. Also, stick to chocolates as a romantic gift.
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