I have heard Bonsai descibed in many ways - art, horticulture, minitrisation, illusion, even torture.

Bonsai trees that are well kept are extremely vibrant and healthy, and in many cases will long out live their 'natural' family - many bonsai can be traced through many generations and can be 100's of years old.

Personally for me bonsai is not only a passion, but its also a metaphor: My personal experience with my health (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) has many parrells with bonsai, I hope to explore these in this Blog.


Monday, July 4, 2011

Exhibition Quality

Bonsai are always (in a perfect world) shown or exhibited in pristine condition. There are many examples of these exhibitions in Australia and around the world, some famous examples are:

Kokufu Bonsai Ten – Japan [1]

Noelanders Trophy – Europe [2]
A lot of planning goes into this. Sometimes the preparation starts months and months before a showing. The process of getting a bonsai tree ready for showing is time consuming, detailed and precise.

For an idea of this process see Graham Potter’s video - View here on YouTube [3]
http://www.youtube.com/user/GrahamWPotter

It does however create a somewhat false impression of the image of a bonsai tree (speaking personally about my trees) quite often they are overgrown, needing TLC, pots full of weeds, in need of re-potting, etc.
In fact it would be detrimental to the health of the tree to keep them in 'show' condition all of the time.

Having an illness (CFS) that has been ongoing for some time, I have at times felt like I am ‘on show’ when I go out in public, or see friends and family. It’s very similar to exhibiting bonsai trees – when I go out ‘on show’ I want to be seen at my best, this on reflection is for a few reasons:
- It’s nice to pretend even if for a short time that everything is ok
- I don’t want people to worry about me
- It’s easier to put on a show than explaining to people, over and over again about my illness
- My own vanity

But behind the scenes (just like exhibiting Bonsai) it takes a lot of effort to put on good show when faced with (CFS). The behind the scenes for my personally to put on a good show are actually quite precise, planned and not very exciting. For me it works like this.
Basically I have a limited store of energy (physical and mental) and i need to divide it up to accomplish what i need to do day to day, week to week. For example if i need/want to be out for a few hours on a Saturday i need to plan to rest the day before, and not plan as much for the day after. This assumes that I’m sleeping ok and not sick, if that’s the case then it’s just a case of surviving day to day. This process of planning and pacing i will talk more about in another post.

There are of course downsides to this ‘exhibition /show’:
- It takes much preparation and often doesn’t work to plan
- It gives people a false impression of how things really are and how i am coping
- People outside of daily contact with me my only ever see the ‘exhibition/show’ and can wonder if the CFS illness is even real or just a story or imagined
- It’s really a lie, its untruthful and dishonest

I hope to keep working on these issues and be able to somehow reconcile the difference between the two eventually.

Like all Bonsai this too is a work in progress


Sean



[1: www.phoenixbonsai.com]
[2: www.bonsai4me.com]
[3: www.kaizenbonsai.com]

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