Iris Denner: Instructions For Keeping Flowers Alive (Outside Readings)
When you buy grocery store flowers, they come with a packet of a miracle substance that is supposed to make your flowers last longer. The outside of the packet has instructions on how to keep your newly bought flowers alive. It's to prolong their life, which is the purpose of buying supermarket flowers, but it defies nature. Prolonging the life of flowers brings more joy to the person who bought the flowers. But the flowers themselves are coming to the end of their life and it seems almost unethical to prolong it. The writing on the packet is specific as if there is only one way in which to properly defy nature. Most people ignore the instructions and just pour the entire packet into water. Research currently says that plants do not have feelings but what happens when new research comes out that proves feelings in plants? Will supermarket flowers become outlawed, or will humans decide that their happiness trumps those of plants? One could argue that the end of a flower’s journey is actually decomposition, not the point in which humans will no longer display them on their table? But then it would still be unethical to cut flowers in the first place. In conclusion, the packets that come with supermarket flowers confuse me.
Comments
Post a Comment