Amy Lu's View

Sometimes time travel is possible. 

I say this not as a geek, (although I proudly am one–just ask me about being a Dr. Who fan way before the Era of David Tennant) but as someone who recently experienced a random connection between objects separated by almost 40 years. 

“Hey that’s my rose!” I said to myself at church this Sunday as I surveyed the collection of flowers we could choose from to take home with us and spotted the pink rose. This flower claiming was part of our annual Flower Communion, a beautiful and simple ritual celebrated by Unitarian Universalists churches throughout the world.

There is a great deal of symbolism and meaning in the Flower Communion, but for me, in that moment, the meaning was wrapped up in communining not so much with my fellow congregants or the beauty of the natural world, but with my 16-year-old self. 

The communion wasn’t necessarily all that deep. It was basically “Hey, once upon a time I was 16 and now I’m 52 and then I enjoyed art class even though I wasn’t that good at it and now I enjoy church and yay I’m still here and enjoying things, including roses I create–even if not very well–and roses that are a gift from someone who didn’t even intend to give it specifically to me.”

When I got home, clutching my pink rose, I was pleased to discover that I did indeed still have my rose painting that I created so many years ago. (I knew that I had recently discovered it, but wasn’t sure if I kept it or threw it out in my recent decluttering efforts. Happily, I kept my artistic creation–it was the “original” poster by artist Brian Davis that I tossed). 

I think I was also particularly happy to get a cool pink rose and ponder roses because we now frequently do the icebreaker “rose, bud, thorn” at work. (No, I am not the leader of these meetings or we would not have an icebreaker–or check-in fellow MSUS folk–but I try to rise above my snarkiness and participate in good faith). It’s a simple and innocuous icebreaker–you are asked to talk about (from your professional or personal life) a current “rose” (something good), “bud” (something you’re anticipating, looking forward to) and a “thorn” (something that’s painful or a pain in the ass). I just think about icebreakers too much…What is appropriate to share at this meeting? How can I be entertaining and interesting and relevant and brief? 

And, most importantly, how can I get the song “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” out of my head after any mention of or thought I have of roses? I don’t even know who that song is by. Poison? Okay, going to the Google in real blog time…YES, it is by Poison! It was released in 1988, the same year I graduated from high school and two years after I created my rose painting masterpiece inspired by the work of Brian Davis (which really is oh so very, very 80’s).

Of course I could do a blog deep dive, and maybe someday I will, about the wisdom of Poison’s song…DOES every rose really have a thorn? And what does it mean if it doesn’t? But that is a question left to tackle at a later day, or perhaps left an unsolved mystery.

Hmmm, this post really doesn’t have anything to do about time travel, but about memory and the boundaries between my past and current (and future) selves getting blurry. Or maybe me just drinking a wee too much and my thinking getting blurry.

Or maybe I just need to do a cover of Poison’s song at our church’s coffee house and take up painting again!