The Rembis Report and Other Fascinating Topics - Volume XXXVIII

My pumpkin seeds sprouted today.

March 16, 2022

My pumpkin seeds sprouted today.

I have altered their destiny. Once, they were just seeds that came from the pumpkins I carved into Jack O’Lanterns from last Halloween. Today, they are more than just biological time machines waiting for sunlight. They are live plants, soaking up that sunlight, and growing. Will they thrive and become pumpkins like I want them to? If they are successful, will their lineage carry on for years, or centuries? Maybe. If I get a lot of pumpkins with lots of seeds and a lot of them get sown into good soil, they may just last for a mighty long time.

How great is that? To know that I helped something live? It makes me happy. I try to push it out of my mind that I am raising them just for a holiday decoration slaughterfest, because when you think about it, then it just becomes downright diabolical. What kind of evil plan is that? Why not just go to the store and buy one? Pay the hitman. Not this year. Getting up close and personal with the veggies. I know they all get a little riled when they hear lawn mowers and weed-whackers, so I plan to keep it simple. A sharp knife, a quick cut, and then it will all be over. Except for the mutilation, of course. Seeds and gooey innards all over the place.

But maybe that is their plan.

Maybe the pumpkins have a greater wisdom than I could ever anticipate. Are they using me for their longevity? Does genius reside in the DNA of those little seeds? Some would argue that it does, indeed. All mighty oaks were once acorns. Was that their plan all along? To plant and thrive when the time was right? Did I fall for their scam? Quite the long con. What if all the plants are in on this?

All those nurseries and farms and forests, all those plants working together to make sure they stay alive and go on and on, for as long as they can, wherever they end up, however they get there. They hitchhike on the wind or in the bellies of birds and find a place to make their home. Not all seeds sprout. Some won’t have favorable conditions. Some end up in places they would rather not be, but they hang on anyway. That is how you find strange flowers growing in odd places. Cracks in sidewalks or in the middle of roads. Sometimes they get plucked out or run over, while others are left to grow into trees. Each plant sits on a razor edge of life or death at all times. It doesn’t take much to kill a young plant. But for anything with deep roots, it takes a lot more.

It is a monumental effort to uproot and destroy a tree. To break and cut the limbs, topple the trunk, and rip the roots from the earth where they spent decades, if not centuries. Swaths of rainforest are cut down daily. In the time it took you to read this article this far, some measure of acreage has been demolished. Other plants will grow in their place, but the seeds can survive.

Somewhere.

Ukrainians have deep roots.

While people are not trees, we adore our own lineage and the land we come from. We are bound to it. We care about it. We know that it belongs to us.

So, when trampled by hostile invaders, land will be defended by those bound to it. Some, the young, and those caring for them, must evacuate, taking flight to whatever safe haven they can reach. Like birds and other creatures of the forest, who have no defense, they must flee, or they will die. Those who stay to fight will do so until they stop the invasion, or until they are destroyed. There is no other option.

You have heard the parallels of this war with that of the Nazis of World War II. These are valid observations and remind us, like weeds growing in a garden, that what was old is new again. Invasive species do no good. They bring no fruit. They infest with thorns and misery. Worst of all, they are hard to destroy and always seem to appear out of nowhere. Plus, they keep coming back. This is why you must kill the weeds, and share these stories, so that others know what it takes to make a nice garden grow.

It is just as important to protect your seeds. Because years from now, even though you may not know it yet, those seeds will grow and blossom into something, and if you care enough for the right ones, the world will harvest something beautiful. Nobody will be able to thank you, years after you are gone, for those plants, but you can think about who they might be, as they tend the garden you leave behind.

My friend Judi Beecher thanks people she never met for her existence. Her mother ran for her life, away from Nazis, not knowing where she would get to, when she was just six years old. If she had not done that, if strangers who cared about more about life than infesting land just to destroy it, had not helped her, Judi may not even be here today. Her thankfulness has inspired her to create the documentary, The Kindness of Strangers, about her mother’s escape and rescue from war.

There are bound to be many, many more similar stories in years to come, and there are many more you will probably never hear. There are just so many.

Here is one you may not have heard about. This is senseless destruction done by the Russian military at the Institute of Irrigated Agriculture in Kherson. They destroyed agricultural machinery, a warehouse with potato seeds, and vandalized property. The only reason to do such a thing is to starve people, and it is not the first time the Russian Army has done this to Ukrainians. Once again, there are many more shocking stories than I care to tell.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will not back down. Nor should he. The monsters destroying his garden will only stop when they are dead. Just like weeds.

I hope this war ends soon. My ancestry leads back to Ukraine and Poland. I look at the old women on TV running from their lifelong homes with only a bag, and I see my Grandmother. In the young women I see my sisters and cousins, in the men I see my uncles and nephews. While some may be only distant relatives, or no relation at all, I feel that they are family. That is my garden that is being trampled. I don’t like it.

One Ukrainian woman held out sunflower seeds to a Russian soldier and told him to keep them in his pocket, so that when he dies, they will grow. That is one tough mama. Respect!

This is proof that life will go on. Everything wants to survive. Even sunflowers.

Many unfortunate people over there need help. There are Ukraine based online businesses where you can purchase digital art that puts money directly in the pockets of people who can access it from anywhere.

Please visit these websites and share these links with your contact list. These are legitimate charities who assist displaced people in need, not just in Ukraine, but around the world.

This list is by no means complete. There are many others. You may not be in a position to offer shelter, or be able to send ammunition, or to step in and fight, but you can help those who need your humanitarian support. It is important to do so, because everything you do to help those in crisis sends the message to the criminals and trespassers that what they are doing is wrong, and they will never win.

If it happened to you, could you defend, survive, and recover? It is easy to be the armchair warrior, rooting for the home team. But being there is a whole new ball game I don't think anyone really wants to be a part of.

So, be grateful for what you have. Be glad you are safe and your seeds and your plants survive.

Scroll through Facebook and Twitter for first hand accounts of the war. Because this is really happening and the important thing to remember is that this has happened before, it is happening again, and it can happen anywhere. Your garden can be just as easily trampled.