The Little Cacus that Could and Did

About a year ago, they laid half our department off. The layoffs were due to a change in technology and were supposed to save money, but the people supporting the new technology are as numerous as those who supported the old. Nonethless, a lot of nice folks were gone. It was sad and many of the departed still don't have jobs. Hell, the people who left a year before they did don't either. Technology is not a fun place to be and I'm glad I put in my time in the years when it was.

This is a long way of saying that when one of my friends left, she gave me her cactus. This was a Charlie Brown cactus, which lurched drunkenly at a 45 degree angle toward her door. Pencils stuck strategically in the dirt propped it up. Not the kind of plant you would take to the fair. God, no. But it had a cute pot, and I am genetically programmed for plant care, and if the plant if useless and ugly,I still tend and nuture.

Due to seniority and being in the right place once, and also the fact that I used to work my tail off, I have an office with a window and not a place in the cube farm. My happiest days were in the cube farm, but that's another story. So the pathetic Charlie Brown cactus went onto the window sill with a few other orphans that I've adopted over the years and the geraniums that winter over in my office.

Not much happened. I gave the cactus more water than Carol had, and it received abundant sun, and maybe a drip or two of plant food when the other plants were being babied. A few months ago, a humongous shoot sprang out of the still-listing to starboard center of the cactus. Tiny blossoms emerged(again, nothing to drag to the state fair). As the wee blossoms died up and fell off, I planted them in the dirt around the cactus. Then at the very tip of the blossom end, a new little cactus grew on the stem. Cutest little thing you ever did see. Well, maybe not, but a mother's love is blind. Then on the cactus proper, new green growth appeared--little cacti growing on Mom. A third showed up today, as did another shoot growing out of the center.

My haphazrd care has been rewarded many times over. Now if all the love and work and effort and angst that goes into my writing were rewarded thusly, I would be in a different place. Last week, one more rejection. No more emails from agents except one 'no, not for me.'

Slogging on. Oh yeah, and still with the ever-present need to suck it up. And I glance toward the window sill at the little cactus that could. Now I have to find pumice to grow the cuttings in. Where do you find pumice in New England? Arrrgh. Surf the web and pay a premium to ship pumice out here. At least it's light. Nothing is too good for the Charlie Brown cactus.