Rebel With A Watering Can

I have never owned a pet, but I can see why people own dogs, for instance, apart from their possible watch dog roles. Talk
about being actknowledged in ways most human beings don't give to each other...when you have come home from a hard
day at work...being greeted with yelps of delight...joyful bodily contact and face slobberings...and a flailing tail that says...
"Yes...Yes...Yes!"...to your existence on this earth. Yes...I can see why people have dogs...although I have also seen a dark
side of human/dog relations...with the human barking commands to his or her dog like a Nazi to "sit, stay, go on etc. etc.!".
What a charge that must be for the dominator or dominatrix now revealed...giving commands to a living entity that will not
answer back...and will obediently allow you your moments of "uber power"...and then shower you with a vigorous show of
its dependence on you...when you finally decide to say..."good dog...good dog". The closest I've come to having pets is my
motley little forest of plants. "Little forest" because I've grouped most of them in the bottom third of my wide balcony window
...on top of an old grey trunk...battered enough to be a natural companion of green growing things. Hibiscus...bougainvillea......African violet...geranium...maiden hair fern...spider plant...philedendron and Christmas cactus...although seldom or never flower bearing...represent in their mottleyness...my personal struggle against planned obsolescence, You are supposed to keep plants bought or given to you...after they have been industrially goosed to produce their optimum blooming...so that they can be sold...only for the two weeks or so...after you have acquired them...and they begin to go off their maximum state...then buy some more. I've always refused to do this...holding on to them...sometimes for years...until they finally die of natural causes. This is not a "noble" thing...it's a bit more like a "rebel" thing...that has to do with not becoming an all out unquestioning consumer...doing exactly what commercial interests want him to do. Once in a while...I am rewarded by a post obsolescent blossom or two...for being such a "persevering master"...to my tattered silent and green or greenish companions. Today...it's an African violet...given to me about two and a half years ago...producing three sprigs of delicate mauve flowers...that I just moved closer to the light to help them bloom fully. Yes being a dedicated "forest ranger"...albeit indoors...does have its rewards...if you keep on watering...and wait long enough for them to come to you........Quester.