i'll always be irish

I have this plant that I bought in, oh, 1999. His name is Spidey. He’s a spider plant, and joined the family when we lived in the soap opera house and had a gorgeous corner kitchen window. He loved that window, and grew and thrived there. He survived the move north, to the tiny apartment of unemployment, and then the duplex of contention, and then the condo of the committee. It was in the condo that I decided that what he maybe really wanted was a day in the sun. Have you ever put your indoor plants out on the deck for the day? Yeah. They don’t like it. He got a horrible sunburn and I ended up having to trim his leaves back to only an inch long. No one thought he would survive. And yet, somehow, like we all do, he made it back from the lowest low. I took him with me to the last roommate, and then he was my companion in the lonely basement until I got married. Now he has an honored place in the Kansas basement, and I just can’t picture an apartment or home without him. I know it’s just a plant, but for some reason I find a lot of comfort in knowing that something else has been there all along—that something else has had rough times and made it through and that we are still alive and well together. I love this plant. At some point in his life, I think maybe in the condo of unemployment, he got a pot companion. We call him the Pot Luck of the Irish. It’s a long name, I know, but he’s a pretty handsome little leprechaun. And the two have never been parted.

And there you have it. One of the five things I would save in a fire. My laptop, my wedding blanket, my purse, my baby scrapbook, and Spidey.

Update: To clarify that last sentence: In church a few weeks ago we had to fill out a survey (to be used in Relief Society Feud? I don’t know.) and the last question was “If your house was on fire, what five things would you go back in to save?” I spent most of the meeting silently pondering that question and not only missed the connection between the lesson on Jesus Christ in the manual and the lesson on past general RS presidents that was presented, but also had the hardest time coming up with five things. First, I reasoned, in a fire all people will already be out. Obviously. Because otherwise there go four of my options. Second, it’s just a fire. I’m not picking the only five things I’ll ever have for the rest of my life. Most of the things I own are replaceable. Scriptures? Books? Clothes? Furniture? Toilet Paper? All completely replaceable. Third, I figured that, no matter when the fire happened, I would be wearing my wedding ring and my watch, so I wouldn’t need to go back for those things. And my purse would have my credit cards, SS card, passport, and camera, so those things are all taken care of, too. You see, I really did think long and hard about this very important, life altering question. And that’s how Spidey made the list.