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Heronswood Rashomon
I reflect from time to time on the Rashomon story. It helps calm things down during arguments. We all differ in what we see, as well as remember. However, there are similar stories that reveal as much.
In “Meteor”, Karel Capek’s imaginative, early 20th century novella, a downed and severely injured pilot is taken to a hospital, but his identity, face and voice are unrevealed. As he lies in bed, several characters speculate who he is. John Galsworthy and H. G. Wells admired it, the critic Rene Wellek called it “the greatest attempt at a philosophical novel ever made”, while another called it “the first cubist novel”. It is the middle of his trilogy, “Three Novels”, which includes the haunting tragedy, “Hordubal”.
Most know of the blind men with the elephant, each touching a different part and coming to a poetically wrong conclusion. In some versions, the main point is how heatedly they argue, each denying that he could be wrong, much less that they all could be.
A delightful variant is found in Tibetan Buddhism. One night a group of men out walking come to a pond and gather around it. On its surface shines the reflection of the full moon. To one it is a silver coin, another says it looks like a poached egg, while another insists it is the face of a ghost. The moral is not that they differ, but that they don’t look up at the moon. While they still may argue, the Buddhists reasoned, they would be working from the original. Accordingly, one seeks enlightenment in the world, not reflections in the waves.
Last July at our Heronswood Gardens Open House in Kingston, Washington, we had 1,200 attendees in 6 hours. Most were first-time visitors. Many will return on Saturday, July 26, to see again the garden they heard so much about.
Earlier in the summer, the even larger gardens at the Heronswood East Coast Open will be on Saturday, July 12, at Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, PA. We’ll sell rare specimens as well as conduct garden tours. All proceeds from both events benefit The Garden Conservancy.