No Kings Day
“Monarchs are usurpers and descendants of usurpers; for the reason that no throne was ever set up in this world by the will, freely exercised, of the only body possessing the legitimate right to set it up--the numerical mass of the nation.”
Mark Twain in a letter to Sylvester Baxter, 1889
Caiophora coronata is in interesting plant in the Loasaceae family, I remember seeing a few of the family members on my Chilean adventure a few years ago, but the King of them on that trip was this specimen of C. coronata near the ski fields high above Santiago near Farellones. White kings crowns poking out of bristly, poison laden barbed foliage. The scent of a nearby Juniella wafting in to the shissshing sound of the air moving over an andean condors 12’ long wings soaring on the warm updrafts rising up the West slope of the Andes. It was definitely an otherworldly landscape for me visiting for the first time. Jane McGary explained that I shouldn’t touch the foliage as they carry a nasty nettle like sting. I have been growing this species, now in it’s second year but staying quite small in a single 5” pot. I keep waiting for those cool flowers to start forming, surprisingly enough the slugs find this thing delicious, I guess the poison barbs have no effect on them.
Caiophora coronata in habitat, 7,880. Farellones, Chile.
We saw some great other Loasacaea on that trip, and I am now growing a few of them. The vining Loasa laterita, gave me quite a number of stings before I got it moved out of the greenhouse to a final planting spot in an out of the way corner above the sand bed. These rock nettles as they are called pack punch, the sting might only last for a few hours but I had a welt on my wrist for 3 weeks from one such engagement. I am dwelling a bit on Chile today, contemplating it as a place I would move to in a second to escape the rising reich here, so please enjoy a few flowers from that trip and from the garden as some of the chilean flora are starting to bloom nicely around the garden.
If ever there was a Hallmark Holiday, I think America’s new No Kings Day is a perfect fit! Think of the marketing, greeting cards with amusing anecdotes from the exploits of Caligula to Richard the III, Shirts and flags with hard hitting punch lines from Thomas Paines “The American Crisis”. Picnic packs from the grocery stores with clever marketing analogies, such as the Boston Tea Party Picnic Pack or the Townshend Act sandwich kit. Napkins and cups, and T-Shirts with slogans such as the George Washingtons “What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.”
Yes, I do believe that this holiday will eventually live up there with Fourth of July, as a distinguished and heralded event to be celebrated each year, soon enough fireworks and parades down mainstreet, family bbq’s and celebrations.
In the History of Kings there isn’t much that ends well for them, the individual Monarch upon his throne may enjoy a decadent life of excess and riches beyond belief while on that throne. But when you look at the demise of so many kings throughout history the end almost always the same, horrible, painful and markedly deserved. The fall from a high place is much worse that the stumble off a small step. You can read all sorts of horrible endings of the kings of antiquity and in the middle ages. Just spend some time learning about Edward the II, William the Conqueror, Edmund Ironside, King Ahab, or Zedekiah, Jehoram, Charles the II of Navarre, the list goes on and on. So enjoy this day, the first ever No Kings day, if history has taught us anything, the good people will eventually triumph, the false king will fall and goodness will triumph over the evil. Soon enough even the hardest of them that glorify to see the fruit pickers chased from the fields and the mother and father ripped from their children by the masked agents of evil will see the folly of their action and the phony monarch will be seen for what he is.
I love the message in the immortal classic by someone who preached love and peace, because even the biggest tree can fall to the small axe given enough time and effort: