WEEDS
Sometimes we’re weeds and sometimes we’re flowers. . .
and sometimes we sit in the garden for hours.
Weeds are important, they cover the ground. . .
To keep us in place when the rain pours down.
A flower is beautiful and reflects the light.
We gather the flowers to keep them in sight.
A vase or a bowl or tied up in a bow.
They give us pleasure wherever they go.
But the weed is secure standing firm and tall.
Never doubting its place in the garden at all.
The weed doesn’t worry about what it looks like.
Or worry about being pulled and thrown out of sight.
When the weed is tossed to the left or the right
It begins to take root and never takes flight.
Sometimes a weed turns into a wildflower.
The best of both worlds with rain or a shower.
Are you a weed or are you a flower?
Or do you just sit in the garden for hours?
~Cheryl Batts Dufrane/Inspired by Our Heavenly Father/May 3, 2023
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A few years ago (2016 to be exact), the musical La La Land made a big splash with me and lingered with me long after the silver screen had faded. The main characters, an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) and a struggling jazzy musician (Ryan Gosling), relentlessly pursue their individual dreams to find success in Hollywood and learn about love, and balance, and sacrifice in the process. One of the most poignant scenes in the movie, known as the Audition Song, occurred when Mia (Stone), who had previously given up her dream to become an actress and had returned to her childhood town (Boulder, Colorado), was catapulted back to Los Angeles by Sebastian (Gosling) for a requested audition.
During that audition Mia is asked to sing a song, any kind of song about anything at all, and she sang an impromptu song about her aunt who she attributed as her muse to become an actress from a young age. I haven’t included all the lyrics to that song below but the lines in bold represent the heart of the song. She is speaking about creative people, the rebels, the painters, the poets, the playwrights who bring to the world “new colors to see”, new ways of looking at life. “Who knows where it will lead us?” she sings with increasing passion as she remembers exactly why the world needs creative, artistic, expressive people, “the ones who dream, as foolish as they may seem.” The dreamers, the creators, the inventors.
‘Here’s to the ones who dream
Foolish as they may seem
Here’s to the hearts that ache
Here’s to the mess we make
She told me
“A bit of madness is key
To give us new colors to see
Who knows where it will lead us?
And that’s why they need us”
So bring on the rebels
The ripples from pebbles
The painters, and poets, and plays
And here’s to the fools who dream
Crazy as they may seem
Here’s to the hearts that break
Here’s to the mess we make.’
Of course, this is not a new idea. Art and culture have always provided a commanding and democratic way of sharing, shaping, and expressing human values. They allow us to explore our inner capabilities and give us insight into how we imagine and use different means to relate with each other. Art and culture also help to shape the manner in which we view and understand the world around us.
So naturally, while eating lunch with a new friend (Cheryl Dufrane) who read aloud to me a poem that she had recently penned, I knew I wanted to publish it here. With her gracious permission, I have included it in this post for your edification and enjoyment. Read it. Savor it. Think about it.