Thursday, June 10, 2004

At lunch today, I was walking along the edge of our recently finished parking lot, eating my turkey and cheese sandwich and thinking about the busy days ahead. As I thought, I noticed the sunflowers growing in the middle of an island of neatly planted elephant grass.

Sunflower plants, thought I. Why? Why are there sunflower plants growing here? There are no sunflower plants growing in the nearby fence row or undeveloped lot.

I continued my meandering walk and my mind recalled a picture my cousin had taken during the building construction process. It was a picture of a sunflower growing just on the inside of the 8 foot chain-link fence. The mental picture of seeing a sunflower through a chain-link fence brought another hazy picture into focus. It was at the Cooper Hall construction site four years ago. There was a sunflower growing just on the other side of the barbwire-topped chain-link fence on the east side of the construction zone.

Why? Why were there sunflowers growing in construction sites? Why at the edges of construction sites?

The mental processes whirred, trying to find an answer. Too many things were fitting together. Then the answer hit me. An answer probably everyone else knows, but I (being slow as usual) just figured it out.

The construction workers eat sunflower seeds. And the good are oft interred with their shells.

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