Beautiful Bicycle Day Fantasy

This post is part of a series of tongue-in-cheek streams of consciousness inspired by the holidays.

Zuzu is such a pretty, if unconventional, name. I’ve thought so ever since I first saw It’s a Wonderful Life as a young kid at the behest of my parents. Every non-mainstream political group has a nickname. The black shirts, the red caps… And my dream is for a day to come when a bunch of people carry around roses in big amphora vases, like peaceful counterpoints to the old Roman Fasces. With every person they’d meet, these messengers would pass out a rose with a personalized spiel advocating widespread adoption of our core values: Love, Liberty, Individuality, Intelligence, Fairness, Foresight, Equanimity, and Egalitarianism. Instead of a repurposed Roman military salute, our greeting would be to extend the two-finger peace sign and say “Life.” (The acronym of the core values, or [LIFE]².) Then when these messengers should run out of flowers, they’d return to a garden–Gandalf’s Garden–and use their hydrias to water the plants. Perhaps one day, in more enlightened times, we might add marijuana flowers and even mushrooms to the bouquets. Pass out a flower, smoke a bud, and share a trip with someone…convert them to the cause of peace and insight. And we’d call ourselves “Zuzu’s Petals” after the line from Clarence in the film. It’d be so beautiful ❤