The Rose vs the Tulip

©copyright 1999* _MW_ All Rights Reserved

All original material has been Copyrighted and may not be published copied or duplicated in any media except by Michael Williams holder of the copyrights.

A man is walking. He sees a group of rose bushes that is at its peak. He grazes the petals of the flowers, stopping occasionally to catch the fragrance through his nose. He notices that there are a lot of thorns in the bushes. He starts to take some of the roses to bring to his love. In his head he hears what sounds like a group of women crying. It is the group of roses that he holds in his hands.

"Why do you cry?"

"You do not care, you are selfish and think only of yourself"

"Please tell me what is bothering you. Is there something I can do to help?"

"Why did you cut us from the others?"

"You are beautiful. I wished to share your fragrance and sharp color with the one I love."

"We will not be so now that you have separated use from the source of our beauty. We will slowly fade, and begin to droop. Then you will consider us repulsive, through us away, and not have on feeling in remorse in doing so."

"But I will be sharing you. Does this not make you happy?"

"If you leave us here many more people will sees us for a longer time. With you, we will be looked at only occasionally. If we stayed here, people who come from great distances would fill our day with their admiring eyes.

Instead we will be stuck in a vase, away from the sun and admiring eyes."

"What would you have me do now?" Pleaded the man with guilt.

"Take us to the nursery. We may not live long, but at least people will see us."

With that the man took the roses to the nursery and left them to the gardener. Outside there were many tulips surrounding the greenhouse. The man wished to bring something back for his lover but after the incident with the roses he could not dare to take the tulips.

"Please sir, take us with you."

It was the tulips they were beckoning the man.

"You want me to take you? But aren't you afraid of withering or of not being admired." "We are not like the roses. Everyone walks by us. They do not stop to look or smell us like you have done. We are lonely."

"This may be true, but how will you feel when you start to wither?"

"It does not matter where we are. It takes us the same amount of time to die in dirt as in water. Please, take us.

With that the man took the tulips, making sure to leave the bulbs behind. Upon giving the flowers to his love he learned that she was allergic to roses and always felt sorry for tulips. She could not say why.