Did you know that flowers commit intentional “floricide?”

In 1995, according to the AP, a professor of horticulture at Purdue University, William R. Woodson, noted that through a process called senescence, flower blossoms intentionally die off. They don’t die of old age.

The flower’s main purpose is to attract insects, or birds or animals, so it can be pollinated. Since the flower can be pollinated only once, it has to die after that, else it will compete uselessly against adjacent unpollinated blossoms without benefit to the plant. A lingering flower is a drag on the plant.

So, if we follow the biblical admonition to “consider the lilies,” might we oldsters, rather than resorting to extraordinary means of life support and becoming a drag on society, consider the benefit of dying with dignity? Old people, let’s sign our directive to physicians, let’s draw up that living will. Consider the lilies. (Luke 12:27)

‘Lyn Fleury Lambert, Bellevue