Day 574: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: Gotham city

Gotham City -- even the name hints at the complexity of the place.

When we think of Gothic things, historically we think of the uncivilized Goths and Visigoths ... but then again, Gothic architecture has more in common with Moorish architecture... another stream of "darkness" in Europe's history that actually benefited it. And then we think of modern Gothic style ... black hair, pale makeup, and an idealization of the look and feel of death.

Gotham City has all that going on and more, an interplay of culture, savagery, beauty, and multiple levels of darkness.

It's a heck of a place to run a conservatory of flowers, a place full of light and simple, natural beauty.

People come here for relief and inspiration, which is why I keep working here.

Sometimes we try to show the bright side of darkness even here -- three decades ago, we featured an exhibition of night-blooming flowers, mostly cactuses and such. We set it up really nicely one summer, and I remember we drew children from all over the city, from all of the city's strata.

There was one incident -- rich teenager, prep school type clothes, who was just staring at the flowers while the curator was explaining how night-blooming plants operate.

"But how do they pollinate?" he asked to no one in particular.

A kid with his hat on backward leaned over and answered the question before the curator got to it.

"Bats, man," said the kid. "They do the work while the birds and the bees and the normal creatures sleep."

The rich kid's face just lit up; it was like the big light sometimes beaming through the fog that sometimes settles over the city at night. Some kind of signal, I suppose. My eyesight won't quite let me make out what it is, exactly. I am an old man now. But I feel good about how I have spent my life, knowing that I have been an inspiration to many.

Well, it is time for me to get on home, and leave the night to the bats and such.

Photo Credit: Deeann D. Mathews, the author