Roses and Relatedness
Yesterday was spent in a nearby city, a city that is only about150 kilometres away, close by Canadian prairie standards where we measure distances in the time it takes to travel rather than the distance. It was a day for strengthening the bond between father-in-law and son-in-law. On the agenda was the enjoyment of jazz music in the park, dining out, rummaging through a used book store for treasures, spending time in two electronics stores to see what is available, enjoying designer coffee in an upbeat university area coffee shop, and wandering and talking.
Roses remind me of my wife. She loves roses and has numerous rose plants in our gardens. This yellow rose plant is one of the first to bloom this year. Roses have had a place in our relationship since day one when I gave her three red roses on our wedding day. We still have those three roses almost forty years later. Roses symbolize love and relationship, our relationship.
Love and relationship – eros. Here are a few words from Eugene Monick on the topic:
For Jung, logos is to masculinity as eros is to femininity. Where logos thinks and transforms thinking into work, and understands this as accomplishment, eros feels and transforms feeling into relatedness, and understands that as accomplishment. (Monick, Phallos: Sacred Image of the Masculine, 1987, p. 102)
This fits. And the union of logos and eros, coniunctionis, the holy marriage, our marriage.
