1 Jan 2023 has already become 4 Jan 2023. Dates never get outdated! Dates are moving experiences in more ways than one, don’t you think? They don’t allow you to sit still, ever. They change and they change you with them, even if against your will. You have a new experience, and the new experience experiences you as you evolve, dissolve, or devolve and makes you “experienced.”
Any which way, you change along with the date. Unlike 1 January though, the same you will never come round again. So be warned; move gently along with the dates. Don’t ever stop because the dates don’t stop. Be like dates.
Then there are those dates that you savour, that’s a different satisfying experience.
Dates are made for us to celebrate – weddings, funerals, anniversaries, anything; because every event in our lives is linked to a date – maybe an hour and a minute too, but a date certainly, and there were both weddings, funerals, and anniversaries in the last days of last year. Last but not the least, was the theme.
There were birthdays too – babies were born, and their births were celebrated with verve, gaiety, and vitality. The same verve, gaiety and vitality that caused their births! And I happened to attend quite a few.
I’m observant. The emotions ran high always, some visible, most invisible. There was joy, happiness, and some hidden anger too, depending on the occasion and the guests. That is natural. It differed from occasion to occasion. But the flowers were a mix of the same everywhere, White Lilies, Roses, Daisies, Marigolds, Chrysanthemums, Freesias, Delphiniums, and Tuberoses.
No doubt, the flowers added sparkle to the occasion and the photographs and perhaps the video, like Markle to Harry, complemented the grief or joy, and enhanced the photo op, but what emotions did the flowers themselves go through when they were plucked, not knowing whether they would end up at a funeral or wedding or a birthday?
We were in the last days of a year, but they knew these were their last few days on earth, as something that someone looked at twice, rather than once. We would all rather be in that space, wouldn’t we? They would remain on earth no doubt, like the human form, but their soul would have withered with them. Were they sanguine about their final days?
At a funeral, they knew it was their funeral next, but at a wedding, whose funeral would it be? And at a birthday, they knew they would die before the child becomes a man, or man became a child as most old men do these days. Or women – why discriminate in this era of non-discrimination?
Once the occasion is done, they quietly wither away, their purpose fulfilled, our purpose fulfilled. What happens to them? Burnt, thrown on a garbage dump or Compost for Flori and horticulture – Do they incarnate in new forms, because certainly, they don’t return to their field of nurture?
They are valued greatly in their prime, thrown by the wayside when they are past it like humans. Maybe we are flowers too, dressed up for an occasion, and as the dates change, our days become numbered as we become numb.
Like the flowers in the background, today we have photographs to be remembered by – our colour, complexion, expression, and emotion captured forever. But flowers, have nothing; it is we who have to remember how they enhanced our senses, our lives, and our occasions, before fading away.
Dates matter to flowers too – but they make the dates, and occasions to remember not the other way around.
So, the dates keep moving and return to base, every 365 days. Flowers wither, and humans age, as they move. This much we already know.
And we do. Most certainly we do. We make New Year resolutions to resolve issues we faced in the previous year. Enough of this or that. More of this or that. Less of this or that. And then the dates change!
What if the dates did not change? Because other than the dates, nothing really changes. The Sun, Moon, Earth, and Space Station are locked in the same embrace. So, what if the dates didn’t change at all?
Then maybe would not have new beginnings, ends, or from and to or dates themselves. Because every date is on a particular date, isn’t it?
So, dates will never get outdated. We may, but not if we keep moving gently with the dates!
On that happy note, let me wish all of you a happy new year.
My only request is – Let the flowers be. Our date should not be their fate.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Disclaimer
This Article is written in a lighter vein. It hopes to bring a smile to your face, and you must not ascribe motives to its contents. There is no connection to events and characters in real life and if perchance you find a connection with any such real-life event or character, rest assured it’s purely coincidental.
