Unusual flowers have appeared in our little lawn this year. Violets, which we’ve never seen in the garden before, and daisies which are bright pink or deep red (see photo). When it was time to mow the lawn, we sorrowfully bade them farewell. The lawn was also full of rough-looking dandelions which needed firm treatment.
Next morning the lawn was a calm stretch of green. All the dandelions had gone. But gradually I realised that the red daisies were there again. On inspection, I saw that they had not been cut down at all, but had merely bent and lain flat on the ground as the mower passed by overhead. When the coast was clear, they raised themselves up again on their flexible stalks. It was impressive, like an illustration of the old proverb about the tree which bends in a storm, doesn’t break, and lives to tell the tale.
The Ancient Greeks expressed that particular sentiment too, not only the Chinese…
For instance in Antigone, no less. Do you remember that impassioned wee speech by Creon’s son re: the need to bend and not get uprooted like a brittle tree or overturned like a ship that won’t lower its sails?