A Gardening Life

Erich Fromm, German social psychologist and philosopher, promoted possibilities in the struggles of being human. He wrote, The Art of Being,  to reveal how we can shift from the having mode of existence, which gets in the way of our happiness, to a being mode.

Fromm begins with what the goal of living involves. He observes that most definitions of happiness, "converge at some version of having our needs met and our wishes fulfilled - but this raises the question of what it is we actually want."

Human nature involves the interplay of nature and nurture mediated by norms. 

Fromm uses the vocabulary of gardening as a metaphor for life. He writes, "The aim of the life of a rosebush is to be all that is inherent as potentiality in the rosebush: that its leaves are well developed and that its flower is the most perfect rose that can grow out of this seed. The gardener knows, then, in order to reach this aim he must follow certain norms that have been empirically found. The rosebush needs a specific kind of soil, of moisture, of temperature, of sun and shade. It is up to the gardener to provide these things if he wants to have beautiful roses. But even without his help the rosebush tries to provide itself with the optimum of needs. It can do nothing about moisture and soil, but it can do something about sun and temperature by growing “crooked,” in the direction of the sun, provided there is such an opportunity. Why would not the same hold true for the human species?" 

Fromm designs the basic principle of life's ultimate aim as, "The goal of living [is] to grow optimally according to the conditions of human existence and thus to become fully what one potentially is; to let reason or experience guide us to the understanding of what norms are conducive to well-being, given the nature of man that reason enables us to understand.

How might you express your gardening life?

What do you need for optimal growth?

What norms are conducive to your

well-being?

In what ways are you using all your potential?