Bloom where you are planted!
Right about the time I was transitioning out of high school in Chattanooga,Tennessee and into college in Athens, Georgia there was a popular piece of cartoon folk art that originated in a comic book and ended up- so it seems- on every one's t shirt. It was synonymous with rock festivals, love-ins and pungent cannabis smoke.
Until just the past few days when I started to develop the theme of this post did I have any knowledge of the creator behind this hugely popular icon for the hippie age. The creator of this artwork is a cartoonist from Pennsylvania named Robert Crumb. He still holds the rights to the well known image after many challenges and much time through the legal system.
Recently I was working on a submission for "Alive Now" a periodical on faith and spirituality and I was reflecting on the recent passing of one of our very popular north Georgia UMC pastors. I still recall a sermon he delivered at a small local Smyrna church about ten years ago. The title of the sermon was "Bloom Where You are Planted." It had an impact on me so much that the message has stayed with me all these years.
It occurred to me that the concept of blooming where you are planted has a Christ like symmetry with the iconic sixties phrase of keep on trucking. For me the act of blooming has a vertical trajectory whereas trucking is a horizontal movement. Therefore when overlaying trucking with blooming you would have a cross. All geometry aside, the effort of both actions pleads for our personal growth. "keep on trucking" however would be a directive that would appear to engage us in our worldly pursuits whereas "keep on blooming" would immerse us in our faithful spiritual endeavors.
Nevertheless wisdom would suggest that we humans need to have a modicum of success at "keep on trucking" to allow for our all important "keep on blooming." Taking a look at my life's body of work one might surmise that because of too much emphasis towards "keep on trucking" I'm what one might refer to as a "late bloomer."
"...each of you should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to you, just as God has called you..."
1 Corinthians 7:17
Postscript:
The city of Smyrna, Georgia where this writer lives is known as the "Jonquil City." Soon residents of our community will witness the blooming of the jonquils. Few things are as graceful as the lone determined jonquil holding its own early bloom after a late winter frost! Amen
Bradford Bosworth
February, 2016
