Humans are interesting beings.
My homeworld has a reputation for hospitality among them, and in general, that is correct.
But they forget the best translation of one of their own favorite Scriptures … the best-known translation says “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace and goodwill toward men.”
However, more literal translations say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace toward men of goodwill.”
I learned that after I learned that the welcoming gift that we give to every new human visitor reminds those of the European and Europeanized traditions of their holiday called Christmas – the analogy is with the evergreen, nearly undying wreath.
Native Hawaiians and those Europeans who have spent a lot of time on that fair island say that a better analogy is to the lovely lei that was always given to visitors.
That analogy works as well, because by human terms, what they call a wreath here is more closely allied to an orchid living on a wooden slab.
But see, the remaining Native Hawaiians and Native Americans know by experience what the Most High actually wrote: you can only have peace with humans of goodwill.
This is not a reference to any race of humans, in the end, but humanity itself … the record is a warlike record across all colors and creeds.
Thus, our welcoming gift … an undying spring wreath by human standards … since the houses here are built of native wood, this plant grows wherever there is sufficient light. The climate is not unlike that of Hawaii, so no watering is really necessary unless the wreath is taken inside as an inside plant.
Not that any of that makes a difference to me. Human ideas of inside and outside make absolutely no difference to me except as they tell me about how they care for the things they are given by the more corporeal inhabitants of this planet.
Now, I do not set that much by how well the wreath is watered inside; neither does the wreath, for it is sentient and knows I or others will be stopping through to compensate for any otherwise decent person who simply does not have a green thumb. That is a forgivable failing.
However, what the wreath lives on, and tells me about, is the character of its host. The hormonal set and thus the entire physical body set of a kind, peaceful person is completely different than that of a malicious person. That which makes for best human health also makes for the best health of the wreath.
By the same token, malicious people tend to destroy things around them, and wreaths sicken and shrivel in their presence.
Humans are magnificently deceptive in external appearance and words; Trojan horses and smallpox blankets are a wondrous example of this. However, their bodies tell a tale, day by day, that cannot be denied.
Yet rarely does anyone see a dying wreath among the humans here. Our planet has a collection of remarkable humans and gorgeously growing wreaths on their doors, and occasionally in their homes or backyards in a sunny place.
This has to do with our good cultivation and gardening of the humans, if you will.
I and others visit the humans regularly to check on the wreaths, although they are not usually aware of our presence, and need not ever know unless there is a dying wreath in their presence. We will not allow any wreath to actually die, and at the time of our visitation, we determine what is to be done with the human who is with the plant.
Most often, the analogy for me in human thinking would be another one from European ideas around Christmas … if I were on earth at Christmastime, I could fill in for Krampus. That generally is good enough to get malicious people to move along.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus
But occasionally, one would have to go for an analogy about my visitation to another well-known portion of Scripture, in Exodus, in which the Israelites were told to have a particular mark on their doors so that the angel of death would pass over them. The wreath and its health is the mark on my home planet, and human life here is determined by just how long that wreath stays healthy.
Peace, says that Holy Book, is ultimately only toward people of goodwill. We accept this reality when dealing with humans to whom the Book was written, and just sort out who we want to cultivate, who has to be rooted out, and, occasionally, plowed under.
The wreath knows all, and tells all.
This fractal was made in Apophysis 2.09 as a surprising find while I was making a series of fractal alien blooms around which I am wrapping a story featuring Admiral Triefield ... the first one struck me as between a wreath and a lei, and thus the ideas between those two realities, and what they tend to mean in terms of human thinking and history, fostered this story line! Then I had to do the "dying wreath" ... same fractal, recolored on a related palette ... notice the little blue loops in the first version are bigger in the second, but all the other colors are stripped out for red-brown ... I wanted to give the idea that it is still alive but in trouble, requiring a "visit"!