Mike Meets his Maker

I write this entry with the full knowledge that it is of no interest whatsoever to my reading audience. Feel free to ignore it as I post it here mostly for my own reference later.

Mike the Spike is a Dracaena Draco plant that I obtained sometime around 1990. At the time, he (I use the pronoun loosely) lived in a 4-inch plastic pot and stood about 10 inches high. As of the Sunday before this posting, Mike stood 6-feet 8 inches tall (taller than me mind you). Sadly, due to Mike’s recent habitat, he had become a very poor specimen who was badly in need of more outside exposure than I could give him without putting him out of the house. Knowing it was a choice between exposing him to the elements and letting him die a slow and horrible death in the relative darkness of the indoors, Mike was placed on the back patio to seek the sun and his own destiny. Sadly, the wind, the elements and no small help from gravity acted to bash most of the remaining vigor out of his ancient frame. Sadly, this is where the allegory begins. Mike had reached a sad crossroads. I couldn’t let Mike grow any taller since he would slowly deteriorate and eventually become too big to get out the door again. However, I had no way to curb Mike’s growth because of his linear construction. Any trimming would leave a long thin stump that might or might not produce new growth later. And so, the potentially fatal step had to be taken. It was time to either begin him on the journey into a new and robust life or into a slow spiral into decomposition. And so it was, in one fell swoop Mike lost 2 feet in height. Luckily for my sanity, my hope that Mike will find new life is not unfounded but as with anything biological there is always doubt. I have either euthanized my botanical friend or given him a hearty push into the rest of his life. It’s a pity that as a community we don’t have the heart to treat our own species with such compassion.