The Basement Like a blog, only interesting.

Matt Galloway
September 22nd, 2009

Natasha – I have no exclusive on cool snappy western shirts but I hold a strong belief that the world would be a better place to live if more folks wore them once in a while. Can’t wait to see yours. The more the merrier. That’s what I say!

Abby – If you hadn’t figured it out already I wore a red and yellow western shirt with red/gold piping. Flowers (not roses) embroidered on the yolk with lots and lots of snaps (like 6 or 7 on each cuff). I’m very proud. Official Ignite video should be out soon so you can see it.

The shirt is a Scully – Here’s a link to a image of one http://www.where.ca/dynimages/BOW_main_large.JPG

Matt Galloway
September 23rd, 2009

Stephanie – Thanks for commenting.

1.) I agree, sometime roses say exactly what you are trying to say, as in you example roses can say “I understand that to impress you I have to spend a lot of money, regardless of sentiment, and I’m prepared to do just that.” I understand that there are even some women that like roses because they are a spectacularly beautiful and fragrant flower – regardless of price. There are a lot of concrete exceptions to my admittedly over generalized posit, but the underlying idea is absolute – when we are too quick to select the default option in critical decisions we may very well overlook better alternatives. Certainly, roses (specifically red Hallmark-ish roses) are the default option when a man is selecting flowers to give a women with whom he is in, or pursuing, a romantic relationship – one could say the roses are the quintessential romantic flower – but I use roses here as a metaphor for the default option (and I would argue that they are popular because they are the default option, not the other way round).

Even still, your point that roses are expensive and as such may be a better selection than daisies is an interesting one. While roses are expensive, they aren’t the most expensive. Wouldn’t a flower that’s more expensive than a rose (orchids or calla lilies perhaps) communicate the sentiment that the suitor is willing to spend even more than the average suitor who is only willing to spring for roses?

2.) I use “quintessential” 11 times in the first video above (the one with just the slides). Should be about the same for the other video.

3.) Yes, but had to I looked it up. Getting people to question what they mean when they hear and use the word “quintessential” was a primary goal of the presentation.

4.) Respectfully, I maintain that, in romantic relationships, men only give flowers for two reasons: 1.) “To get some” (as you so eloquently phrased it) and 2.) guilt (for cheating, screwing something up, forgetting something important, etc.) They give lots of other reasons in order to hide their real motivations, but those are lies. That said, I’m certain that your husband is an anomaly. Again the flower thing is metaphorical, but in my experience most everyone appreciates the subtly of sensual flowers.

Flower metaphors aside, I hope you can still smell the roses. And perhaps I could have selected a less obtuse titled. Maybe something like “When someone makes a critical decision without critical thought because of malformed knowledge or ideology, you should be pissed off.” but either way the underlying message is the same.

I appreciate and respect your fondness for roses. And I sincerely appreciate you commenting here. It’s important to challenge ideas and to have one’s ideas challenged… this is what helps us reject the status quo when the time comes.

-M.