A repeating story that dates back to the 11th century, is the famous Flower Sermon delivered by The Buddha. Surrounded by a field of devoted students, he held up a single white lotus flower and said nothing.
A photo of a hippie holding a flower before a pointed weapon symbolized the peaceful anti-Vietnam-war demonstrations of the 1960s that later turned violent.
Gertrude Stein was tuned into the simplicity of a continuous present. Her sense that identity is inherent and unchanging is most evidenced in the words in her 1922 poem, Sacred Emily:
a rose is a rose is a rose
The miraculous rose flower, symbolized in all the religions and mythologies of the world to represent forms of love, has been used as an everyday design motif for centuries.
The old-fashioned rose bush seemed to be in the garden of most homes in the 1950s. I learned to appreciate their scent from a young age…
The bloom was adopted by the Grateful Dead band in the 1960s as a core symbol of their music and lyrics that has lived on beyond the band members.
Ramble On Rose. It Must Have Been the Roses. Rosemary. Rosa Lee McFall. As devoted fans during the 1970s, my then boyfriend had one single perfect rose tattooed on his chest and gave me this Bakelite rose pin.
I created wax resist batik-dyed textiles, including t-shirts with the rose emblem.
Rebecca Solnit’s writing has never been more popular. She seems to have aligned with the Zeitgeist. This book from 2021 blends stories of George Orwell’s love for rose gardening with the political activism of his writing. His ideas resonate once again.
Orwell’s 1949 book, titled 1984, examines truth and facts during an imagined future year that is ancient history to us today. He coined a few terms that are still used. Big Brother. Thought Police. Newspeak. An earlier book from 1945, Animal Farm, features a group of animals who rebel against their farmer in hopes of greater equality and freedom when a dictator pig named Napoleon gets in the way of all that. This painting made long ago reminds me of that book.
So many of us have a lot to express these days—opinions, information and varied points-of-view. Anyone paying attention, even a little, is subject to the transparent strategies of the so-called authoritarian fascist coup that is in process before our eyes.
I have been reading up on propaganda techniques that we are experiencing daily. A great list is available at propwatch.org. It seems that we live in a time fraught with glittering generalities—too much information and not enough nuance. I should also mention fear mongering, especially targeted at the baby boomer seniors, threatening removal of the Social Security benefit payments they are reliant upon. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are out in force unfairly disrupting the lives of too many. The stories going around are disturbing. What is actually true?
Art is the thing nobody asked you to do.
Art is grounding.
Make something in the place where nothing existed.
People in the US accustomed to having choice and freedom to pursue endless options now face the creeping truth is that everything we have taken for granted is shifting. Back in 1989, Artist Shepard Fairie was onto the growing push to authoritarian leadership. He later designed the Obama HOPE poster.
Sheila Heti asks in her novel, Pure Color:
Why does it seem like the only way to live is to disobey?
A rebellious nature is innate to free people. Sometimes the natural world rebels in its own way—reminders that there is so much we do not know. Each summer I place an ornament on a branch of the Hydrangea tree outside my office window. All summer the fragrant blossoms bring so much pleasure and seeing the shiny ornament bobbing in the breeze just adds to that. During the Winter, it tends to blow off and break—we have strong winds straight off Lake Erie here. I find a couple broken remaining bits in the Spring. This year, however, the paint is worn off, but the ornament remains sturdy on the branch. I’ll take that as a good sign.
Now, I await the flowering! I am not much of a gardener so the rose bush by my home thrives intermittently, but when it’s good, it’s very good—even awe inspiring.
Rose energy is alive—a pulse of activism across the country is abloom.
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Copyright Pat Pendleton 2025. All rights reserved.
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