All This Complicated Beauty

We're a Mess. And that's Okay.

After it was over.

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing one of the best concerts of my life. Cody Fry usually performs his hauntingly beautiful, “genre-bending” songs with a full orchestra. He performed outdoors on the gorgeous open-air stage of Longwood Gardens, a popular public garden outside of Philadelphia. The stage could only fit 5 strings, two guitars, two pianos, and a drummer, so it was a small orchestra that filled the warm night air with sonic beauty. I wasn’t supposed to take any videos, but here is one I couldn’t help but capture:

As the sun set, I had only one niggling concern. Where were the fireflies? I think I saw two. But in such a large, abundant, natural space, with woods nearby (there are treehouses), there should have been many, many more.

On the way out, I noticed that all the giant, incredible tree specimens had mulch beneath them, weedless, devoid of any understory of plants, and sterile. As my daughter Lucia and I walked through the flowerbeds earlier, I had told her that Longwood was built on the chemical industry. “These flowers look like soldiers. It’s the tyranny of tidiness.” Okay, let me be really catty here. We were walking behind two mature men and their wives, and we were listening to the men talk about all the capital that must go into Longwood, and how they were “itching” to get their hands on the board deck. We could feel the men jonesing to have something like this of their own. To leave their own legacy of grandeur. And no question, Longwood Gardens is a legacy of grandeur.

The gorgeous pink military parade of flowers, courtesy of Lucia.

So this morning, I had to look up Pierre DuPont and how he did it. The original DuPont fortune came from gunpowder in 1802. The company evolved to develop things like nylon, Lycra, Kevlar, Freon, polyester, pesticides, and ultimately GMO seeds and agricultural chemicals. Pierre was President of DuPont from 1915 to 1919. But Pierre also invested in General Motors when it was a start-up, and proceeded to become its President. Look, no shade on Pierre, even though he married his first cousin. He created a masterpiece of landscaping, inspired by his travels around the world.

In the art of landscaping, there are two major parts: hardscaping, which includes things like walls, paths, and structures. And then softscaping, which is plants. Longwood’s hardscaping is incredible, especially its fountains. The trees are majestic and mature. But the plants, the grass, and even the trees felt sterile. Lonely. Trapped. Kind of like my favorite Cody Fry song, which is gorgeous, but about death.

Beauty is so important and essential to humanity. It’s what inspires us, teaches us, moves us, and appeals to our higher selves. But beauty without life is a reminder that what we do matters long after we are gone. I’ve also been watching a documentary series about the Silk Road, which is the trade route from Venice to China that brought us silk, spices, spaghetti, and wisdom. I am currently on the parts that travel through Iran and witnessing the majestic beauty of the mosques, marketplaces, and landscape. Many are over a thousand years old and still in use. Some are in ruins from wars where both the winners and losers are forgotten. I can’t help but feel moved by the history and intelligence of the people whom the American government and Israel have demonized. But I also know we are the pawns in a biblical, made-for-TV Revelations show where the “Second Coming” is the season finale.

For fireflies to live and thrive and shine their light, leaves have to be left on the garden and forest floor to decompose naturally, organically. We all have to get comfortable with a bit of messiness by not cleaning up our gardens and yards too severely in the fall and spring. Wait, is Mess the Messiah?… Time out for Google Search…Yes! Jesus was considered the Messiah because he met people where the mess was and offered healing. NOT TIDINESS. In order to heal ourselves and nature, we are going to have to let things get messy and resist the urge to clean it all up.

Not messy. Very tidy.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the world, especially because we seem to be at the mercy of too many insane tyrants (I’m talking about all of them. There are no heroes in this story). But here is what I do know:

• We can make our gardens and yards a welcome place for all of nature, especially the fireflies, by not using ANY chemicals and leaving the leaves all year round, embracing the mess of nature.

• We can get involved. Who knows, maybe we can get Longwood to go organic! It can’t hurt to try.

• We can be beacons of light for others, gently and calmly sharing our wisdom.

• We can dance. Never, ever, ever give up the opportunity to dance. I need this advice as much as you do. Too many of us are embarrassed to move our bodies and show our physical joy in public. Let’s get over that fear together. Let’s embrace our mess and move. That’s how healing happens, when we can climb out of our fear and embarrassment, and become our true, messy selves.

Be the light. But be the natural light. Not the fake light, even though sometimes it’s pretty.

Lastly, remember this: Nature and the world will not end. But our lives will. Live your life to the fullest and leave the world better than you found it.