{"id":452011,"date":"2026-09-03T08:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452011\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T08:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:28:11","slug":"richard-swerdlow-everythings-coming-up-roses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452011\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Swerdlow: Everything\u2019s Coming Up Roses\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/250612-RICHARD-SWERDLOW-PERSPECTIVES-JN-01-KQED.jpg\"   width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" alt=\"\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Richard Swerdlow at KQED in San Francisco on June 12, 2025.\u00a0(Jennifer Ng\/KQED)<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\">Richard Swerdlow shares about his experience learning floral arranging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\">I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0think one party would change the way I see the world, but it did. My friend\u00a0is\u00a0a true San Francisco free spirit\u00a0and\u00a0loves to throw fabulously original parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\">Arriving at his party, I noticed a scary selection of scissors on display. But then I saw why \u2013 an enormous supply of fresh flowers in buckets of water and tons of vases.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>After mingling and snacking, the guests settled at tables for a presentation by two professional florists. Each guest had a task \u2013 to produce their own flower arrangement. Giggling guests selected their flowers. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know anything about floral arranging, but I was\u00a0game to try and went for a purple theme, with roses, hydrangeas and\u00a0lisianthus, fussing with a vase and displaying them artfully.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\">My lopsided arrangement earned a \u201cnice job\u201d from the florists, and I was proud to bring my arrangement home to display. After a week, the gorgeous flowers had wilted, and it was time to toss them. But my floral experience has me suddenly noticing flowers everyplace, elegant arrangements in shops and lobbies and colorful wildflowers blossoming joyfully in vacant lots\u00a0and along\u00a0freeways.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Flowers, I realized, are more than nature\u2019s art project. Flowers are used symbolically throughout the world, from birth to death. From weddings to funerals, prom boutonni\u00e8res to\u00a0Valentine\u2019s\u00a0Day bouquets, 60s Vietnam\u00a0War protestor flower power to\u00a0World War\u00a0II\u00a0Nazi resister Edelweiss\u00a0Pirates, Hawaiian leis, Swedish flower crowns, Japanese Ikebana,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easy to see why flowers are part of the most\u00a0important events\u00a0of our lives.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Flowers, as with humans, move from fresh and vital to withered and dying, a metaphor for our own brief time on Earth. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0be a florist anytime soon. But thanks to that party, my enjoyment of flowers has bloomed and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0now noticing flowers everywhere with a \u2013 yes \u2013 budding appreciation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\">With a\u00a0Perspective,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0Richard Swerdlow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\">Richard Swerdlow is a retired San Francisco teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Swerdlow at KQED in San Francisco on June 12, 2025.\u00a0(Jennifer Ng\/KQED) Richard Swerdlow shares about his experience&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-452011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}