You really ought to read the whole thing. Here are the concluding paragraphs.
| My African Violet
My mind made the leap from herbs to men. One encounters people throughout one’s life who look like damaged goods. And no doubt they are. Droopy and lifeless, or curled in on themselves, they look gruesome and make the onlooker recoil and turn away. The plant withered because it was trying to save itself. The unappealing person caved in with depression or addiction or surliness is trying to save himself too. The lesson from the African Violet — and a cardinal rule for understanding human behavior — is that no one does anything for no reason. You need to find the reason. And just knowing that there is one stirs my compassion. |
Thank you, Andrée Seu!