A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger

Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident 

This flower is found on a bush near our shed. It is a Common Hibiscus, also known as Althea and as a Korean Rose. In the United Kingdom it is called Rose Mallow. It has been around Japan since the eighth century and probably longer in Syria. Here it is often called Rose of Sharon. 

It is slightly invasive, so it is easily transplanted, very hearty and can even thrive with neglect. John Steinbeck chose wisely when he chose the name Rose of Sharon, which her family pronounced “Rosasharn,” as the name of Tom Joad’s sister in “The Grapes of Wrath.” 

Rose of Sharon is a phrase found in the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon. The author writes, “I am a rose of Sharon.” The Hebrew word sharon means “plain,” in this case the plain east of Israel, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Samarian Hills. However, in the next phrase he refers to himself as “a rose (or lily in some translations) of the valley.” While scholars disagree on meaning, to me it says that the author of the Song of Solomon got around. 

Roseasharn, her family displaced during the Dust Bowl, traveled to California. Like the flower, she needed to be very hearty, easily transplanted and able to, if not thrive, at least survive neglect. The novel ends with her act of breathtaking kindness. When I see this flower I think of the beauty of that ending and that kindness. 

I read the novel in my early twenties, the perfect time, when I was old enough to appreciate its privations and not yet cynical about the hope of their being overcome. It was also a time I was forming my own thoughts about things, and I took a lot from something Tom Joad said. “A fellow ain’t got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody.” 

I feel this every day in our part of the forest, and just a bit more when I admire our Rose of Sharon.