Pruning

Pruning! Not as in 'prunes,' even though I could benefit from a healthy dose or two daily at my age, but trimming back, lifting up and chopping so that vines become fruitful or grow or do what they do best.

For two Sundays in a row from the Rector at St. Peter's, I have heard about pruning as a necessity for life to be its best.

Three days ago, while I was standing in my loft on the stepstool (one of the few items I was granted in the divorce) ready to lop off the vine that grows at breakneck speed from atop my schrank, I wondered if plants have feelings. Anyway, I scissored away at the lengths of leaves until I could see that the tops of the wall storage units needed a good dusting and subsequent damp wiping. There! That was fruitful.

And I had to move items that I have seen but not seen for 3 or so years. There were the 3 Coolie hats - I purchased them in China when I visited - standing against the wall alongside the Waechtersbach red coffee pot I collected while living in Wurzburg, Germany during the first Gulf War. Many things from Costa Rica sat alongside, as well as the world's largest salad bowl from Bibee Pottery in Berea, Kentucky - given to me by my friend, John Leeson. My grandparents' stereopticon with the history of WWI in 3-D photos is there,too. Look up stereopticon. Stereo views were a new fad in 1889. Photographers liked being able to sell their pictures this way, since printing photos in daily or weekly (weakly) publications or books was still difficult and expensive. More fruit, for I took time from my pruning labors to look at photos of the war, a semi-naked 1889 lady, and a billy goat eating the wash from a clothes line.

I returned to my wondering. Leaving the flora, my mind wandered to the human animal, und Ich fragte mich if we have feelings. Then today, I decided that some of us do and others of us don't. I watched the news report about the young man (illegal) from Guatemala who is here to earn money to send to his poverty-stricken family in Central America. While here, he developed severe heart problems. He is dying in a hospital in a little town in Georgia. He has captured the hearts and love and smiles of the entire staff there. The dying young man's wish is to see his parents one last time before he goes. The staff and townspeople have raised the money for his parents' flights from Guatemala City, but the Department of Immigration seems to be the problem now. It is not clear if the parents are eligible by law for a visa, and if so it is not clear how long they can stay.

Come on, Immigration folks! Prune yourselves a bit. Be what you were intended to be; pruning causes the roots to take a firmer hold and the fruit to be sweeter and the flowers to be bigger and more colorful and sweeter smelling.