When I was a kid I wrote a mini song:
My rose bowed its head
When it wept.
Its petals fell away
When we parted.
I used to sing this around the house. Yesterday my daughter was adding lines and music to my broken glass poem. I asked her to pay me my fair share if she becomes famous and rich with her song 😂
Thinking of my rose song made me think more about roses. What was so special about them? Is it the snuggled layers of velvety soft petals, smell, thorns, or the aesthetic beauty overall?
Why so many layers? Is it more beautiful if it has more layers? Then I thought about where else I see “layers” in my life. We got my daughter’s hair a pixie cut today along with “layers”. With the approaching cold front, I should wear “layers” to keep warm. When I look up at the sky, I see that the atmosphere has seven layers. When I look down at the Earth, I find that it has seven layers too. The soil itself has layers of living things as history, geological events and sandwiched time in it.
What about a human life? The training and accumulation of knowledge happens as incremental layerings. A baby first crawls, then stands up, then walks and then can run. Competency increases with each layer and experience. If I want to learn Bioinformatics, I can take 101, then 102 and so on. There is a strategic layering system to learn everything. Scientific or historical layers of knowledge gives strength to an argument. A small business can incrementally reach financial success, layer by layer; sale by sale.
Let me talk like a molecular biologist for a paragraph. When we think about regulation of gene expression, we see many many layers as well. To enable gene expression, you would need to untangle the heterochromatin to euchromatin to make it accessible. Then, a whole gang of regulatory proteins along with RNA Pol 2 will transcribe a gene. The nascent mRNA undergoes a series of modifications: capping, splicing, poly A addition. It will travel to the cytosol to get translated -- only if it does not get degraded by RNAses or by an acting microRNA. Another gang of proteins work with the magnificent ribosome to make the new protein, which is further subjected to a whole gang of post translations modifications to regulate it further. Phew! This is a whole semester class if you are interested in learning :))
Are there cases where having layers is not helpful? I could think of unnecessary bureaucracy. Especially if the additional paperwork is not adding value or regulation. Sometimes having too many layers would unnecessarily complicate things. Sweeping unresolved fights under a rug, making a pile is not good. Processing fights requires scientific methods and is essential to a healthy relationship. So maybe not all layers are good.
Getting back to the pretty rose— in the religious corner— it symbolizes Prophet Muhammed. There is mention of him smelling like roses and people expect to smell roses if they happen to have a metaphorical visit. Many religious songs refer to him as rose and he is depicted as a rose since drawing faces of Prophets is prohibited in Islam.
I was surprised to find many layered things in our lives and appreciated the beauty of roses once more. If you happen to pass by a rose, bend down and smell it. Maybe if you are lucky it might have a couple pearly water drops on it too.
So naive…
Like a drop of water
Resting on a rose petal.
Do not bow your head,
Do not let your pearls fall—
Like a cherry branch
Swaying in the gentle breeze.
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