From JaneRoberts :

You need not try so hard. If you trust the inner self, then you grow as a flower grows. The flower grows correctly, and it does not say to itself, "I must grow two inches, so help me, by tomorrow night at twilight!" A flower ''is'', and it allows itself to grow, and it is sure of its Is-ness and of the spirit of All-That-Is within it.

Now, goodness is as natural as a flower that grows. If a flower stopped when the sun was shining down upon it, however, and if it began to consider and said - "Wait! Should I grow to the left, or should I grow to the right? Is it good that the sun shines down on me, or is it too easy for me to grow in the light of the sun, and therefore should I attempt to grow instead in the darkness? Should I grow two inches to the right, or two inches to the left? I must strive to grow! I must develop an ego and an intellect, and I must try to reach that sun that is God and I must work hard to because if I do not strive, I shall not achieve - and I must achieve!"

But, beside our intellectual, conscientious flower is an idiot of a flower! And the idiot of a flower stands and feels the sun upon its face and opens up its leaves and says, "This is the sun, and it is good within me; it is the spirit of growth, and I'll follow it and give it freedom; and I care not whether I grow to the right or to the left, for in perfect trust with the spirit within me, I know I shall grow correctly."

And so it grows, our idiot flower, and it grows from within. And it is perfect and it is straight, but beside it is our intellectual and spiritual flower. And ''this'' flower says, "Again! Three o'clock in the afternoon, the shadows are coming and the shadows ore evil, and this sun is fading, and the night is coming, and the night is evil; and I must consider how best I can confound these adversaries ... and it is easy to fail and not use my abilities and not to grow!"

And lo and behold, in the morning the sun rises, and what do we find? Our idiot flower in full bloom in the morning sun and our other flower with one leaf drooped down like this, and one leaf curled up like this, and head down, still considering the nature of good and evil and not trusting the spirit of vitality which is within it; and therefore, not listening to the inner voice ... but questioning at every point and at every hour; "In which way shall I go? Shall I accept the sunlight or the rain? Or are these evil forces?" And telling itself over and over again that to grow is difficult and to die is easy. Telling itself over and over and over - in metaphysical terms - that to be good is difficult and to be evil is easy.

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http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif

http://www.angryflower.com/

''I also heard that one Cory Doctorow (an alleged liberal) was writing a sequel to ''Atlas Shrugged''. The working title is "Atlas Thugged"''

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''That idiot flower, that just stands there naturally and accepts its due - does it have a responsibility to enlighten his brother flower which seems to be caught in confusion?''

It does indeed. And it does so by its example, for the other flower should look over and say, "How is it that my brother flower grows so beautifully in the sunlight?"

''I doubt it has any such responsibility. It grows while the other withers, and so, by evolution, its offspring become stronger.''

Yes, but then those flowers that assist one another by sharing helpful information will outcompete it. This is why LoveIsAnInstinct for humanity ... love occurs to us because there's an evolutionary advantage for it to occur to us.
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Brings to mind: "You are the flower of your family, you know, a blooming idiot!"
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Explanations why evil is easy and good is hard: ParableOfTheIdiotFlowersDiscussion.
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CategoryGardeningMetaphor