Jim: I see your point, but it's a tough thing for a lot of people to do. It
doesn't matter so much that our bonsai don't purr or wag their tails or get all
excited to see us. For many of us, the sentiment comes from our personal investment
into the bonsai. This is not so different from the uncomfortable feelings one has
wen selling a home and listening to the prospective buyers talk about how they want
to change something that you really worked on and made the house special to you.
Some of us are sentimental, and others are not. Vive la difference!
Alan Walker, Lake Charles, LA, USA
http://LCBSBonsai.org http://bonsai-bci.com
================================
Jim Lewis wrote:
Well, Andy . . . I don't subscribe to BT Online and haven't read
the article/essay. I wasn't, in fact, commenting on anything you
wrote, but only on the warm and fuzzy tinge some of the message
in this thread seemed to be taking on. Bonsai don't "care" who
owns them, or even if they're owned. And, while I'll give people
trees every so often, cheapskate that I am, I hate like heck to
give away the pots! ;-)

In any event, I prefer not to imbue bonsai with too much
"deepness" or "significance." It is enough, I think, to enjoy
working with the trees and letting them be a means of relaxation
and perhaps, occasionally, creation (but that may be getting too
significant).
Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL
======
Hi Jim,
This (bonsai as "pets" or "family") was not the thrust of
either the comments here or of my comments in the essay. The fact is that
the artist and the tree have a partnership that necessitates cooperation
in ways not found in most (any?) other art(s). Selling or giving away
something that is unfinished, with the balance of "our" plans being unrealized is a
bit different than selling/giving away a work of art/possession
that does not carry this kind of baggage. This is not to say that doing so
involves an overabundance of drama, but it is often a bit more difficult.
Anyway, let's not mischaracterize the gist here.
Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge zone 8, Texas http://www.bunjindesign.com/bonsai/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Lewis"
Bonsai aren't pets. Plants reciprocate no warm and fuzzy
feelings like a dog will (or a cat -- sometimes -- while you
are petting it. There's absolutely no point in getting
emotionally involved with a tree in a pot. There are always more where
that one came from. Enjoy them, by all means, but as "things" not as "family."
Jim Lewis

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