2016-12-01 - Hope For The Flowers by Trina Paulos ================================================= Book cover image I read this together with a loved one and was charmed. The experience is difficult to articulate here, but it reminded me of being read to by a librarian in the children's section of Josephine County Library. Interestingly enough, Hope For The Flowers is kept in the adult section of the Eugene Library. I appreciated the cute illustrations and humorous language; simple and endearing. The main characters are caterpillars named Stripe and Yellow. They are drawn with beady little eyes. Their surprising range of emotion reminds me of emoticons and other minimal symbols. My favorite line is when Yellow speculates "If i have inside me the stuff to make cocoons, maybe the stuff of butterflies is there too." One could call it a working hypothesis. Or, one could call it faith, hope, and trust. Nomenclature aside, this line goes beyond wishful thinking because Yellow had the courage to act on it. The story seemed to be an allegory for the conflict between a material and a spiritual focus in life. The main characters gain temporary relief by dropping out of the rat race. However, in the long term they are not satisfied by their happy little bubble. Here they part ways, one returning to the materialistic path and the other embarking on a new spiritual path. Invigorated from their respite, they are both successful in their prospective endeavors. The materialistic path results in destruction. This misuse of the climbing instinct was a cruel hoax on caterpillars in general. Butterflies are a classic metaphor for transformation. I will avoid the question of an afterlife, but the metaphor brings two associations to mind. The first association is the song Following The Moon by Osprey, which includes the lyrics below. In the song, our hearts are beating for freedom, held in the temporary safety of this body. "We can build a cocoon together ... Somebody clipped your wings, but listen how the caged bird sings, for freedom, can you hear it, it's your own heart beating." The second association is the book Yoga Lessons For Developing Spiritual Consciousness by Swami Mukerji. "It is quite necessary that we should pass through certain experiences, that we rise from ideal to ideal. We create our own fate. Our sufferings, our joys, are so many projections from ourselves. We alone are responsible for them. Like the silkworm we build a cocoon around the soul and then feeling "cramped," we set to loosening the bonds." The tale ends in the formation of a new "pillar." Extrapolating from the allegory, the materialistic path could be considered an inevitable part of life, absurd but necessary for our evolution. author: Paulus, Trina detail: LOC: PZ4.P327 Ho source: tags: ebook,counterculture,fantasy,fiction,graphic novel title: Hope For The Flowers Tags ==== ebook counterculture fantasy fiction graphic novel