The most famous line in Voltaire’s ”Candide” is the final one: ”We must cultivate our garden.” That is Candide’s response to the philosopher Pangloss, who tries again and again to prove that we live in the best of all possible worlds, no matter what disasters befall us.
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A guest essay in yesterday’s NYT set me to thinking about Candide, and about gardens. The editorial was a terrible example of PC claptrap, but if you’re so inclined – and if you also have a NYT subscription – you can read it here. I don’t recommend it. To summarize: Rather than being benign or even virtuous places, gardens are actually “sinister,” since they are bastions of retreat from the world-at-large for the fortunate few. An example is made of a walled enclave tended by a warden at Auschwitz. You get the picture.
To be fair, the essayist goes on to extoll the virtues of community gardens, just not ones that are inaccessible to outsiders. And believe me when I tell you, I love community gardens almost as much as I love my backyard roses. We have both kinds of gardens here, and the climate in West Sac makes for good growing in both cases. At least it’s better than my neighbor, whose postage-stamp-sized backyard is 100% Astro-turf, and who advertises her place (it’s a rental) as “low-maintenance.” Ahem.
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The “garden” Candide was referring to was our inner lives, of course. But even that has a down-side, as Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection and drowning in a pool will attest. I won’t belabor the point, but from that first garden in Eden all the way down to today, the issue isn’t so much what’s in a garden, but rather, what’s in the human heart. And yes, our hearts’ desires can be problematic. But as human behavioral output goes, we could all do a lot worse than tending roses or planting tomatos. I mean, we could be putting our efforts into other sorts of investments, but then where would we be? Not Eden, that’s for sure.
Happy gardening, y’all!
