Journal to a Muse

Dallas Blooming!
Some Teachers Fuming...

DH and I played hooky today. We got up and going under the cloud cover so we could beat the crowd at the Dallas Arboretum. The D.A. opens at 9 am. We arrived at 10:15 and the place was already packed!








There were semi-retired folks like us, avid (eccentric looking) gardners, young families,grandmas with grandkids, brides having portraits taken and occasional mobs of school children.




I enjoy watching the kids. One group of first graders, with matching red shirts, and name tags (which included the school's telephone number) were busy identifying noteworthy features on canary yellow work sheets. The adults with them were calm, in charge and friendly.

We were in their midst when they found a life sized sulpture of an opossum. I asked one young man if he'd ever seen one in real life, and if he knew they roamed around in most suburban areas at night. "Nope. I've got snakes!" he said. "Two of 'em. In my house." His grin alternated between pride and timidity. As a group the kids moseyed comfortably through the gardens.













It was less calm when a clutch of uniformed 3rd graders were being tightly herded from the restrooms to a souvenir stand. We'd seen them earlier in the day being told about pollination by one of the D.A. docents. Sitting on a bench, trying to rediscover the spring in our step, we became props while their teacher shamed the kids into being quiet. "You all better quiet down and line up or these people won't think you are something besides gentlemen and ladies," she said. I believe many of them had been shamed plenty because they responded slowly and sullenly for the most part. They perked up a little when DH and I acknowledged that we could see they were interesting young ladies and gentlemen.

I asked the kids standing right in front of us what they thought of the arboretum. "It's hot," they complained. I agreed, and ventured that I was glad it wasn't as hot as July would be. Had they learned anything? There was rather a long pause. Somebody said "pollination," but there was no extra data to go with it. I wondered if plant reproduction was lumped into the sex education that is prohibited most places in Texas.

Several hands shot up when I asked if anybody wanted to go home and start a garden. THAT was a good sign.

One young lady seemed to be warming up to the conversation and her hand reached out toward the camera bag my husband had on the bench next to him. The scolding she got from the teacher was beyond my comprehension. As DH said, it was better when the nuns just thunked you on the skull. You got the drift immediately and stopped the offending behavior.

But poor Janequa (I can't remember her actual name) had to listen to several contemptuous paragraphs about her "offensive" behavior in the presence of DH and I and her entire class. She was tall for her age and grade (3rd) and I imagine she is expected to act 10 or 12 instead of 8 a lot of the time. I have no idea whether anyone had actually talked with her about boundaries, what you can touch, and how to get permission to touch something you are interested in. I so wanted to look her in the eye and tell her we didn't mind... and that it might be good form to ask before reaching... but her eyes remained downcast, her lip out and her jaw clenched. And communities wonder why "children" are crabby and grumpy by junior high school.


Even though it wasn't quite as sylvan as I had hoped, we were overwhelmed by the blooms. the publicity claimed more than 400,000 bulbs were planted and it wasn't hard to believe. Tulips galore (which don't over-winter here in Texas because the cold isn't cold enough... so all of these get planted. ANNUALLY.) The azaleas were in high season, as were the dogwoods, flowering peaches, pansies, and violas,

The roses, day lilies and iris will be in their prime closer to Easter.

The expanded Women's Garden with streams, benches, vistas and wisteria was like a cloister. Small intimate spaces were around bends and curves and hidden between hedges... in contrast to the wide lawns and huge flower beds in the main garden.

I read a new Chinese proverb today--

You haven't begun to live until you have started a garden.

Plant something beautiful...in the ground, in a classroom, within a friend or a stranger.