Prince and the NPG (New Plant Generation)
We couldn't help ourselves. Two members of our team are old enough to remember when Purple Rain was in new rotation on the radio and so we shed a few tears at the passing of great artist. Then, we thought about the best way to pay homage to him. For us at The Life Cooperative, this is the year of the bees and other things and bees need flowers right?
We made some seed bombs (is that ok to say anymore?) Prince was never really politically correct, so why should we be? I am not sure how plant related this is, but I think that recent events have shown me now what needs to be done. There comes an arc in the loss of a person of such magnitude.
First there is the sadness at the loss. I was sitting and looking at my facebook page and there it was... Prince, dead at 57. I thought/ hoped it was a hoax. I hoped it was one of those things that someone had made up to get people to click on their page, but no...
I thought back on a nearly 40 year career the man had and though the vast majority of his songs were about sex, think about how many times we heard about him getting into trouble. No DUI's, no trials. He was married twice, but who remembers his weddings? Who remembers why he got divorced? It wasn't because he cheated (that we know of). I like how delightfully little we knew about his private life.
At his passing, we are hearing about how he funded organizations like Yes We Code and how thanks to him there are families in California with solar panels on their homes. Still, most of the pictures we see of him are him on stage, playing guitar, or piano, any other instrument he was proficient in: all self taught.
I am in the second phase of my mourning arc. I am past listening to his discography and trying to remember where I was when I first heard whatever song. Now I am in that phase of looking at what I liked so much about him and wondering why he will be so missed..
There are people all over the place who are taking selfies and hoping for likes. Prince just did his thing and got likes...loves. Could you imagine? Imagine not taking all of those selfies. Imagine just doing your thing so well that people are compelled to take pictures of you. Or imagine doing your thing so well that people just took pictures of the thing you did? That is the thing that defines the greatest of our generation. They are not rushing to take pictures of themselves. Michael Jordan rarely said "Watch this." and leaped from the 3 point line. Bill Gates lives in a suburb of Seattle even though he could live, theoretically, on the moon. Sir Paul McCartney still gets chased down the streets the same as when he was teens.
So, when you are walking along the Beltline in Atlanta you are going to see patches of purple triliums or in Augusta, you are going to see swaths of black eyed susans thanks to a donation from some friends of us there in the Augusta area who wanted to honor his father. There are places in Clemson where people will notice wild splashes of color and we hope people will take pictures of those as well.
We should be known for our passions rather than exalting our relation to that passion. Prince will be known for his music. He didn't have to say "look at me!!!" he just did what he did so well that you had to look.
We made some seed bombs (is that ok to say anymore?) Prince was never really politically correct, so why should we be? I am not sure how plant related this is, but I think that recent events have shown me now what needs to be done. There comes an arc in the loss of a person of such magnitude.
First there is the sadness at the loss. I was sitting and looking at my facebook page and there it was... Prince, dead at 57. I thought/ hoped it was a hoax. I hoped it was one of those things that someone had made up to get people to click on their page, but no...
I thought back on a nearly 40 year career the man had and though the vast majority of his songs were about sex, think about how many times we heard about him getting into trouble. No DUI's, no trials. He was married twice, but who remembers his weddings? Who remembers why he got divorced? It wasn't because he cheated (that we know of). I like how delightfully little we knew about his private life.
At his passing, we are hearing about how he funded organizations like Yes We Code and how thanks to him there are families in California with solar panels on their homes. Still, most of the pictures we see of him are him on stage, playing guitar, or piano, any other instrument he was proficient in: all self taught.
I am in the second phase of my mourning arc. I am past listening to his discography and trying to remember where I was when I first heard whatever song. Now I am in that phase of looking at what I liked so much about him and wondering why he will be so missed..
There are people all over the place who are taking selfies and hoping for likes. Prince just did his thing and got likes...loves. Could you imagine? Imagine not taking all of those selfies. Imagine just doing your thing so well that people are compelled to take pictures of you. Or imagine doing your thing so well that people just took pictures of the thing you did? That is the thing that defines the greatest of our generation. They are not rushing to take pictures of themselves. Michael Jordan rarely said "Watch this." and leaped from the 3 point line. Bill Gates lives in a suburb of Seattle even though he could live, theoretically, on the moon. Sir Paul McCartney still gets chased down the streets the same as when he was teens.
So, when you are walking along the Beltline in Atlanta you are going to see patches of purple triliums or in Augusta, you are going to see swaths of black eyed susans thanks to a donation from some friends of us there in the Augusta area who wanted to honor his father. There are places in Clemson where people will notice wild splashes of color and we hope people will take pictures of those as well.
Comments
Post a Comment