The Garden and the Order

The Garden and the Order

15/4/2019

Part I – The Truth and Beyond.

This story is about our dearest Prudence Warner. It all started with her grandmother passing away, leaving her this wonderful cottage and its full-of-mystery garden. When Prudence got the cottage in her grandmother’s will, she was still an office worker in a busy city. One day it got so hard she needed an escape, that’s when she took the keys, and left her old life behind. When she arrived at the cottage, she was welcomed dearly by her grandmother’s neighbors, who told her to be careful with that garden, “it had turned Melinda insane” they said. She wondered what that meant, since she had never heard of her grandmother having problems, but brushed it off, and into the cottage she went. She started cleaning up dust and moving furniture around, until the house was finally clean, and ready for her to live in. She went to her grandmother’s study, there was big bookcase with many books in it. Prudence held one named The City of Ladies, opened it and read a note: “Fair daughter… Have you forgotten that when fine gold is tested in furnace… it gets purer the more it is hammered” ^[1]. She moved on to a journal, she opened it and read: “The Apology, those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient…” ^[2].

As the night fell she changed her clothes, and got ready for bed. She looked out the window to view the beautiful garden and the stars, that’s when she saw a gorgeous violet plant shining brighter than the sun. She couldn’t wipe the surprise off her face, as she was walking outside to see what it was; it was unlike any other thing she had seen. She went outside, and looked at it closer, but not too closely to avoid possibly get hurt; she did not know what it was. That’s when her grandmother’s voice came and told her “be careful love, not everything is bright as it seems”. She thought she was dreaming, because she hadn’t slept in a while. She ignored the voice, and went on closer to the plant as she grew more curious; she touched it and her whole world was flashing white, she went into what felt like a vortex.

When it was finally over, she opened her eyes to see this wonderful yet terrifying garden, the whole surroundings were different, the sky was purple, the cottage did not exist, and the number of plants were much greater. As the shock was drawing on her face, she started walking around the glowing plants, there were all these voices she did not understand. She looked down and saw these garden gnomes given life, and talking. She grew more and more in surprise as she walked into the garden that seemed endless. The water was bright white, the soil was rich and colorful, and the grass was perfectly manicured. The scarecrow was on the bright strong fence driving birds away from the garden; its presence created an invisible force around the garden that parried away birds and possible intruders. Prudence went closer to the scarecrow, and saw the source of the birds, and it was the exact opposite of the bright garden she stood in; complete darkness, the sky above was eaten by night, the plants were dead, the soil was burned, weeds were everywhere, and the fence broken. She looked into the horizon, and saw more gardens coming into existence; they all were normal gardens, not glowing or dark, but the usual look of gardens, some better cared of than others.

The gnomes began explaining to her how the bright garden worked: “here you have the soil which is pretty rich, and this well feeds all plants what they need; no plant can survive without it. Of course you cannot forget the pipes, they deliver the water, and give life to the plants”. “But how do you run your system?” Prudence asked. “Of course you were to ask this”, the gnome leader said, “that is us the gnomes, we make sure order is set and served”. As the gnome leader kept explaining the importance of their role to Prudence, her eyes went wandering into the dark garden again; she did not find any wells, and was shocked by how the pipes were all broken. What really surprised her was that the fence of the bright garden did not end, but instead faded away through the dark garden. She thought of asking the gnome leader, but decided that he probably would not tell her the truth about it. “He is too obnoxious” she thought.

She let the gnome leader finish his talking, and moved around the garden to examine the fence. As she stepped closer to the dark garden she found that it was actually part of the bright garden where everything seemed perfect. A different group of gnomes met with her as she walked reluctantly into the black burned soil; most of them were partially broken and showing severe damage. “Who are you?” said the gnome in the front; he had scratches, but seemed to be the one in control. “I’m sorry, but I do not understand this world, what happened here?” Prudence asked. The gnomes looked at each other in confusion and concern, they were hesitant to talk. “It’s okay if you feel scared, and think I am an intruder, but I really am only looking for answers, and perhaps I can help you if you help me” Prudence said. As she started to get desperate for an answer, the gnome leader started talking “we are no one, we are the waste thrown to the dogs. Our hometown is in the dark”. The gnome leader’s right hand man added, “we were once part of that garden”, pointing at one of the surrounding ordinary gardens, “we were all under the same rules and with one voice, The One prohibited unfair activities ^[3]; it was all going well, until they decided it was not enough for them, and started getting greedy. ‘Now there is no regime’ ^[4]

Prudence took a flash back of what the bright garden gnomes said while hearing the dark garden gnomes leader explaining “we all worked equally, and got a fair amount of food from the soil and water from the well; the plants were happy, and were providing their share for the soil and it was paying them back. But one day, that group of plants (pointing at the bright garden) decided they are different from others, that they deserve more than their share of water and food, and they started stealing from the soil and other plants, until they had enough resources to turn themselves into what they are now, gnomes, with different figures and abilities than the rest of us. I know you are thinking, we are both gnomes. Well, someone had to stop them when they went crazy”.

The dark gnomes leader continued “When they turned into gnomes they started cutting off plants and eating their produce, turning the water pipes to their direction and cutting off plants from water. The One tried to stop them, but they revolted and started hurting her. We had to intervene for sure; we did what we had to do when we transformed to gnomes; it was for the greater good. When we started rioting against them they got very worried and started putting back some sort of ‘order’, by giving other plants what they needed in exchange of not joining us. They were able to buy part of us and the plants, they grew stronger and stronger and we were left out deserted and kicked out to this dark garden, because all others cowered. They did not have a problem destroying a part of their garden as long as they would have the better one and we would be destroyed. ‘One of the greatest injustices and one contributing most to the destruction of civilization is the unjustified imposition of tasks and the use of the subject for forced labor’ ^[5]. We could have stopped them; we were equal in power at some point, but our brothers were too scared”.

Concern and worry shaped on Prudence’s face as she looked back at the bright garden, and her grandmother’s voice spoke to her, “be careful love, not everything is bright as it seems”. She was very worried and asked in a shaky voice “who is The One?”. “She was the order, she kept us all in harmony. We called her The One, but her name Melinda. Melinda Warner”. Prudence was shocked and her heart was full of heat of everything from anger to fear and all in between. They added, “she was eternal, she was to never die, in order to keep this world in harmony. When she decided to put them down, they figured out how to kill her. They killed order, they killed The One” ^[6]. Anger showed on Prudence’s face as it filled up with her blood making it red as a volcano. “I said I would help you before, and I will. They killed my world, and now we are going to get order back, we will restore harmony. They must pay”. Prudence said in anger, but her voice was still shaky as she was still scared.

Part II – Vengeance.

Months have passed since Prudence discovered the other world. She stayed there, and decided she was going to restore order and harmony, for order and grandmother’s sake. “We hope you are enjoying your stay, Ms. Warner”. A gnome from the bright garden wished. “I sure am, it is wonderful, this world is everything I dreamed of!”, Prudence answered. “Please, if you need anything, just let us know, we are at your service.” The gnome said as he smiled and left.

— Five Months Earlier —

“We will get order back, but we need to be smart”, said Prudence to the dark garden gnomes. “We need a plan, because these gnomes won’t go without a fight, and since they were able to get my grandmother, they must be very powerful. Grandmother always told me, ‘if you can’t fight them with weaponry, fight them with mind’. Oh grandmother, if only you knew what they were capable of”. She shakes her sadness and grieve and continues, “But weeping won’t help us, we need to start working on our plan. You will stay the way you are in appearance, they should never know you are changing, else they will suspect and attack you. They do not have anything against me yet, and they think I am just a naive girl who does not know much. I will play as their friend, gather as much information as possible, and understand how they operate”.

— Present Day —

Prudence is studying the situation as she lives along with the bright garden gnomes. She finds that they have been using the essence of the magic well that is hidden underneath the garden to keep them strong, in replacement of the plants produce that could not sustain their strength and had faded away in a short time. They have used this essence and gained enough strength to kill Melinda Warner, the order. The essence maker was, The One before Melinda, who had faced similar problems with the garden plants growing greedy, and made the essence to take them down, but they found out and killed him before he had the chance to complete it. When Melinda took over, she kept the essence in hiding and locked it, and returned order with the help of the good ones in the garden, there are always good ones. The essence was never completed, however; there was a missing ingredient to complete it.

Grandmother’s voice in Prudence’s head never went away, since she was living in the bright garden; it was as if she was giving her some clues. She recalled what her grandmother had always told her, “remember, darling, the key is always in the earth smoke”. She never understood what that meant, but it finally hit her. Her grandmother was a farmer, and she was the order of the lands; The One. It must be a name of a plant. She sneaks off to see the dark garden gnome leader and asks him what Earth Smoke means. He answers, it is the ancient name of the plant Fumitory. Prudence gets shocked when she hears that; her grandmother have always had some of these plants at her house. She looks down at her glass locket and finds two samples of Fumitory, “oh my, she knew this day would come,” Prudence says to herself, “but why didn’t she finish the essence?” she wonders, “This locket, it must be the key to downstairs!”.

— 00:01:23 —

“Alright, so this is what we are going to do. I will go downstairs and try to add the flower as fast as possible. Your role begins when we turn the plants against them again, to free all from the nightmare of the bright garden gnomes”. Prudence tries a number of locks, opens the door to the downstairs garden, and adds the flower to the essence and gets out. At that point, the bright garden gnomes are woken up, and the dark garden gnomes are standing by their door; they freak out and prepare themselves to attack the dark garden gnomes. Prudence shows up and faces them straight. “The time has come, it is over, and we will take over from now. We have the essence ready. You must surrender”, and surrender they did at the end.

Part III – The Afterlife.

It has been three months since the battle with the bright garden gnomes, they put up a good fight, and Prudence used the essence to neutralize them. Each passing day everyone in the garden thanks Prudence and the dark garden gnomes for returning order and justice into their garden. “The combination of (abstract intelligibilia) and the judgment is appreciation” ^[7]. They have placed Prudence as The One. The garden now looks normal again; the sky is blue; the water runs through the fixed pipes; and the soil is rehabilitee throughout the whole garden. The plants are finally equal. Prudence takes a look back at the garden she helped save, and remembers something she saw in grandmother’s bookshelf, “The world is a garden” ^[8].

The reality is, people are always afraid to stand up to face the greedy, and darkness always rains down on societies. With the voice of order ringing through the good ones’ hearts, there is always a returning order back, no matter how hard. Societies go through this cycle of who rules; at times it is the greedy and at others it is the people. People must stand for themselves, and help the ones who do; with will comes power, and people must always have their will strong and stay strong.

References

• Aristotle’s The Politics. Trans. by C.D.C Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1998.
• Ibn Khaldun’s The Mukkadimah. An Introduction to History, trans. by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton University Press, 2005.
• Nietzsche’s This Spoke Zarathustra, trans. by Douglas Burnham and Martin Jesinghausen. Indiana University Press, 2010.
• Plato’s Five Dialogues, ‘The Apology’, trans. by G.M.A Grube, second edition. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002..
• The Selected Writing of Christine de Pisan, ‘The Book of The City of Ladies’, trans. by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinaski and Kevin Brownlee. Norton, 1997.

Footnotes

[1] The Book of the City of Ladies, Pg.121.4. Christine de Pisan. Here Christine tells the story of the three women she met and comforted her. This helps her with her writing as well because the philosophers at her time were writing against women. This is why Melinda Warner draws inspiration from her.

[2] The Apology, 22a-b. Plato. “I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable”.

[3] On Dynasties, Royal Authority, Government Ranks and all that goes with these things. Pg.242. Ibn Khaldun. “On account of these evil consequences, all such (unfair activities) are prohibited by law”.

[4] Politics III.3.1292b30. Aristotle. “For where the laws do not rule there is no regime”.

[6] Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche. “God is dead. God remains dead”.

[8] Kitab al Ibar, Preliminary Remarks, pg.41, Ibn Khaldun. “The world is a garden of which the fence is the dynasty. The dynasty is the authority through which life is given to proper behavior. Proper behavior is a policy directed by the ruler. The ruler is an institution supported by the subjects. The subjects are the servants. The soldiers are helpers who are maintained by money. Money is substance brought together by the subjects. The subjects are servants who are protected by justice. Justice is something familiar, and through it, the world persists. The world is a garden”.

1. The Book of the City of Ladies, Pg.121.4. Christine de Pisan ↑
2. The Apology, 22a-b. Plato. ↑
3. On Dynasties, Royal Authority, Government Ranks and all that goes with these things. Pg.242. Ibn Khaldun. ↑
4. Politics III.3.1292b30. Aristotle. ↑
5. On Dynasties, Royal Authority, Government Ranks and all that goes with these things, Pg.241. Ibn Khaldun. ↑
6. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche. ↑
7. The Methods of Instruction, pg.399, Ibn Khaldun. ↑
8. Kitab al Ibar, Preliminary Remarks, pg.41, Ibn Khaldun. ↑