Big Beautiful World 81 - Ficus in the Street, Paris

It’s a big, beautiful world out there. Can we PLEASE stop screwing it up?

Ficus in the streets, Paris in the sheets, is that how the saying goes? Or am I, I don’t know. Off, or something?

I am still missing the world and am on a nostalgia tour in my computer, and I came across this fella. I remember when I first encountered it, as I made my way through Paris the first morning after we landed. I mean, there it was, along the sidewalk, with an amazing system of cables and anchors so the plants could climb. We were there in December, though, so there wasn’t a lot of climbing and growing going on. There was just the promise of it for the future.

I would say I’ll revisit it in the summer, some time, but I can’t possibly remember the street this was on and I’m not about to start lying. Not about this, anyway. Besides, knowing that I just got to enjoy this ficus just once highlights the impermanence of beauty—even if it grows and flourishes, it won’t be the same spindly, tenacious thing, braving the winter cold with ruddy power, clad in an evergreen coat. Enjoy it while you can.