Notes from the Editor's Desk -- 5/18/22

On Bonsai trees and roses

Bonsai trees growing ancient in the courtyard across from the rose garden put into mind the matter discovered while touring the lineaments of nature. Fortune fair is the rose’s better grace, the observation of which is the cause of awe, because we understand it to be brief. We understand it is the outward brevity, the spectacle, that we find interesting. Observations of a more inward proclivity occur before the bonsai. A different state of mind holds sway; inflexible, if in yourself you are inflexible; still, if in yourself you are still, but intense no matter. Tedium is intense. Brevity, whether embodied in flora, or adopting experience itself for its medium, is as compelling as the rose. The rose, the seer, and the wind, who cannot be observed, save through its passage in the garden, are studies all in brevity.