The Imperative Nature of Cross-Pollination

Gardening and growing green things (including house plants) has never really been one of my skill sets. This fact has been a source of great frustration. One of the first jobs I found myself as a young adult was delivering flowers. I loved that job! (Minus funeral home deliveries, because I always had to go in the “back door” to drop the flowers off. Yes, I’m soft and it creeped me out.) I loved the smell of dirt, outdoors, greenery and blossoms that greeted me every morning when I arrived at work—especially in the winter months. I loved the smile on people’s faces when they received their flowers. (In the year I worked this job, I did actually have one customer refuse their bouquet. The woman was polite to me, but the tension and irritation on her face was blatant. So much so that it’s been 22 years and I can still picture it. Whoever sent those flowers was in big, big trouble.)

My affinity for flowers and flower arrangements continues to this day. I regularly buy myself a bundle of cut flowers from the grocery store and arrange and display them for my own enjoyment. But cut flowers aren’t the same as live ones, and growing things has proven far more difficult for me than mastering the symmetry of arrangement. 

I am proud to report, however, that I currently have more house plants (alive) than I ever have before. I’ve kept some alive for several years now, so I’ve gotten bold in growing my interior garden. I’m even trying my luck with indoor lemon and lime trees. Both of which I’ve nearly killed at least twice, but have miraculously brought back from the brink. (These feats of resurrection have fueled my courage.) I’m figuring this out ya’ll and I couldn’t be more excited!

And, true to form, my attention in learning and developing the skill of growing live plants has my brain making all sorts of metaphorical connections. I understand this meme more than ever before:

While my needs are far more dramatic and demanding than a house plant, it is still true for me like it is for the plant: if my basic needs are not met, I will eventually wither and die. 

We all understand this physically of course.  (Though I do suspect our physical bodies can endure and survive a lot more with a lot less than we think.) But I’m a student of the mind, not a nutritionist, so my inclination is towards the soul and considering our soul’s basic needs.   

There is a wealth of material on how to take good care of our mental and emotional health available at our fingertips. (Brené Brown is a current favorite.) Books, blogs, articles, TedTalks, etc., abound, loaded with great advice on how to be your best self, bloom and feel full of life and energy. I’m not interested in reinventing the wheel. I won’t be giving you a comprehensive list on how to meet your soul’s basic needs.

Instead, I want to share a couple components of cultivating a healthy soul that keep coming up for me—in conversation, in my reading material, and, honestly, are simply relevant to my life’s season. I will share more over the next blogs, but today I want to discuss the concept of cross-pollination.

In botany, cross-pollination is the transfer of pollen from one plant to another plant of different genetic make-up. The benefits of cross-pollination include the creation of healthy and diverse offspring, better able to survive (and thrive) in the environment. Cross-pollination is so helpful for the survival of viable plant life that several species of plants aren’t able to self-pollinate. They rely solely on cross-pollination for the future of their species. (“Save the Bees” movements often cite how valuable bees are to the activity of cross-pollination.) Cross-pollination is crucial to healthy plant-life/nature (and so are bees!). 

When applying the term to humanity, the definition changes a little. The dictionary defines this version of cross-pollination as:

A sharing or interchange of knowledge, ideas, etc., as for mutual enrichment; cross-fertilization

Regarding cross-pollination and the soul, let me be bold and say:

Diversity is beneficial

“Same” can be sturdy (comfortable and easy), but it can also be stagnant. And though it is true, life still grows in stagnancy, it typically has a strong odor and isn’t very appealing…

When I think of the need for cross-pollination in my own life, a relatively recent example comes to mind. In the late stages of finishing my master’s degree, I was also considering whether or not I would go on to pursue a doctoral degree. The university I attended for my studies was in the early stages of developing a PhD program for English and was, of course, soliciting the current MA students to apply. I loved the program and especially the incredibly smart and talented professors I worked with. The appeal to keep going, to keep working with all the amazing individuals was strong. However, my mentor professor, a brilliant, caring and honest woman, sat me down and basically said, “don’t you dare.” I had spent years taking courses from this institution and these professors. Her opinion was that if I continued on in my educational journey, I needed to find a new group of scholars to learn from. She readily admitted that she felt I had already learned everything I could from her, and as a result, it was time to move on.

In a way, her advice to me was counter-intuitive. After all, we worked well together and had enjoyed our time together immensely. She too promoted the university and it’s programs and wanted them to succeed. I was a great student, hard-working and disciplined, and would’ve been a solid addition to the program. However, in this context, cross-pollination and the change required to achieve it make total sense. Which is the whole reason I used this example—it’s obvious. Beyond the obvious need for it in education/academia, I firmly believe cross-pollination is valuable and useful in all facets of life. 

In every area of life we have the opportunity to grow, to change, to learn new and different ways of doing and thinking. We just have to be open to it. Being open to diversity and difference can be a challenge. “New” and “different” also means unfamiliar or uncomfortable, and can even make us feel foolish or ignorant. But the benefits include a more rich, meaningful, perhaps even a more productive and influential present and future. The risks are worth the potential advantages.

So then, what does cross-pollination look like in the everyday life?

First, let me admonish that you must be comfortable with trial and error. You may try a new activity and realize, quickly, that you are not a fan—that’s okay! Or, you may start listening to some different podcasters only to discover you strongly disagree with them. That’s okay too. Cross-pollination isn’t about accepting every new idea, activity, or perspective that you find (nobody has time for that, nor do I want to contend with that many conflicting thoughts in my mind at one time). Rather, it is about being aware of all your options and honing in on the best fit for you.

Cross-pollination affords for the selection of the strongest, most useful genotype by offering selection from a larger pool of choices. Let it work that way for you too.

Cross-pollination happens when we:

• Listen to new voices/sources of inspiration and insight.

Break out of your algorithms! Look up a subject matter you’re interested in and read books/articles or listen to podcasts from people you’ve never heard of before. If you really want to challenge yourself, take the time to listen to someone you suspect you’ll disagree with. (I don’t know, perhaps a liberal if you’re a conservative and vice versa. I’m meddling, I know.)  

• Try Something New

We all have things we think, “I’d really love to try that someday…” Why not make it today? Christmas of 2020 I took a risk and purchased my husband all the necessary supplies to paint. The only time he had ever painted was at one of those instructor-led sessions where everyone paints the same picture. Even though the event was a birthday party for my daughter, he seemed to really get into it. I decided to push him a little and set him up to at least try it out. He was nervous, (the whole I’m-too-old-to-start-a-new-hobby-like-this-and-look-like-a-novice thing) but he loves it! It was worth the risk.

• Challenge Yourself

This could come in a variety of ways. It just has to include you stepping out of your comfort zone in some fashion. For the month of February I have challenged myself to read as many banned books as I can. (Several lists of this kind of material are easily found online.) Typically, these books are banned because the content is difficult to digest. I’m only two books in and I can attest to the difficulty. The texts are not easy or comfortable. Yet, as I surrender my need for comfort, my empathy and understanding expands. These are values in my life I desire growth in, so the difficulty is worth it. 

We live in a remarkable time in human history, and not because of Covid. We have access to more opportunities, more free knowledge, just more … than any other society before us. Why not take advantage of it? Don’t let yourself become a stagnant life, doing the same things you’ve always done, thinking the same things you’ve always thought. Do make sure you take time to water and sun yourself, but make a little room for something new too.