On being selfish

I want to show this photo because this flower reminded me of something I realised a little while ago and then forgot again. This flower came from my garden. The rose bush this flower came from has been growing in my garden, blooming beautiful flowers like this one every now and again for a few years. I love it! I have never encountered a rose bush as “fertile” as this, giving rise to so many flowers and so often. Now, the romantic side of me believes this rose bush is so fertile because it came from a bouquet I was once given out of love. When the flowers died, instead of throwing them out (like normal people do), I cut the stems off, and I planted them in the ground. That was a few years ago. Of course, one of the stems became this most productive plant. So together with this romance theory, every time this plant flowers I believe it is giving me, me specifically, the gift of flowers. But I never cut them off the rose bush… until today.

I've never cut one of my own flowers because I know that the flower will most likely have a longer life without my interference. I water the plant, I prune it sometimes, I try to keep the bugs off it; I like to think that I’m giving it a good life. The truth is its roots are probably deep enough now that it could support itself without my input, but I don’t want to risk it withering from lack of water or something I could have possibly prevented. In the last few weeks its base has become infected with some thing I can’t quite keep off it. But also in the last few weeks she is flowering again. It amazes me how something so beautiful can come from something that is at the same time ill.

What drove me to cut a flower off my plant today? Selfishness. Plainly and simply, I decided today to be selfish. See, I saw how beautiful the flowers on the plant were, and I thought I want to enjoy this one more, more closely, for longer, and I want to do that now. Sunset was coming and I wanted to keep enjoying my flower. I thought, she will die one day, so will I, why not take this moment in our lives and share it together? And, yes, I do get this emotionally attached even to flowers; I’m not even being metaphorical! So today I decided to be selfish and brought my beautiful rose inside with me, to enjoy her beauty (purely for my own benefit, though caring for her – and yet not as best as she deserves).

And what did I remember? It was about selfishness. That in order to love, or at least act on love (and what is love without actions? Non-existent), you have to be selfish. At some point you have to decide and act on that inner impulse, to reach forward and both give and take. There’s no one-sided love; as much as we give, we always take. So you have to at least be self-confident that you are deserving of another’s love – and go about either accepting it or striving for it. Even if we do that thing where (because we “know” ourselves so well) we think others are better than us, that we’re not the best person in the universe for the object of our affection, you have to be selfish or else you can’t truly love. We would never act on love if we didn't decide at some point to be selfish. And, of course, this brings me to a second realisation: that it’s hard to love, because you lack confidence and an accurate sense of self-worth, when you are suffering with depression. It’s like my flower struggling to be beautiful, to blossom and radiate, in the face of whatever illness she is facing. How could I love her in a satisfying way without first deciding that I’m worthy of her beauty and she of my care?

And now is the point where I realise that perhaps, in a way, I can’t help but be metaphorical.