House Plants- Ben Murray

People have told me that before you have a child you should first get a dog or a cat. Others have told me that before you get a pet you should buy some house plants to take care of for awhile.This is because busy people like us need opportunities to accidentally kill a living thing that depends on us to survive, without punching ourselves in the gut with guilt in the process. In my studio apartment on my little desk is a small plant serving precisely this purpose. I keep it in indirect sunlight and water it exactly once a week. I trim off dead leaves and rotate its pot to counteract its phototropic nature in favor of my OCD. But I feel as though there is more to our attraction to keeping potted plants than just the pragmatic nature of our care for them. Plants are a direct representation of the governing forces in our lives. Frail little things who run from death and strive to live prosperously with the smallest amount of effort. They grow their leaves and branches towards the filtered sunlight, and sink their roots as deep as they can manage to find water.  These are the same tenets that govern our day to day lives.

The future is what is happening next. Everything we do to maintain a prosperous life, or to avoid situations that could lead to uncomfortable life and possible death, are small efforts in shaping our future. It sounds grim, but us intelligent humans live in the same brutal circle as the hawk and the field mouse, or the locust and the crop, we have just needlessly complicated the cycle by creating endless facets that require our constant attention. This cycle and this life are chaotic, and the future is unsure, so we are constantly seeking a sense of control and order. A house plant is a controlled experiment. By taking into our space we put ourselves in control of the variables, of its world. We are in control of everything that has ever mattered to it and everything that ever will matter to it. I decide when it gets light, water and nutrients. I have complete control. Almost. There is still the small possibility of the soil not being quite right, for a disease to take over, or for an infestation to take its life. We seek total control but can only ever get 99%.

The future is the only thing we cannot ever fully predict or control, and it is in this way that these little green housemates represent our real, current and mutable futures; They give us that sense of nurturing and control we so desperately need. They also look great, so where's the harm?