You know how in all those stories(notably gong fu stories, anime/manga of that type), the protagonist usually has to seek out some guru/hermit/crazy joker who chooses to isolate him/herself away from the community at large in order to learn the most powerful skills or techniques? Well, guess what? There's actually a LOT of basis for truth in that kind of thing. The irony: I've come to this conclusion in following my interest in growing carnivorous plants.
The fact is that in any of those communities, YES, even the local carnivorous plant growers circle, there's a shitload of politics going on. Hell, you'd think that in a community as small as this - we're talking about what? No more than 20-40 or so people tops? - people would be able to just help each other and develop on their interest and skill of growing CPs, but noooooooooooooo. In reality, there've been a few queen bitches(yes interestingly, all of them are female) who have been playing a nasty game of politics and using lies and backstabbing, plus a lot of sucking up, have been effectively getting rivals kicked out of the community. YES, this means YOU: C-I-N-D-Y N-G you disgustng, filthy, vermin-ridden piece of demon crap. If any of you readers ever go to one of those Garden Festivals or whatever, she'll be the one promoting pitcher plants or helping out at the booth of a certain nursery. Even spitting on her would be too good for her.
What does this have to do with hermits and gurus? Well, the people like her basically kill off anyone more skilled or who know more than themselves, while choosing a select 1 or 2 who are easy to manipulate and who can help them become hailed by the community as the top dog. WTF. If this means a community of thousands worship the crap you poop because they think you're truely l33t, that's one thing, but in a community of ~30?!?
Naturally, the people who have a true passion for that art/skill/etc would either end up 'killed off' by such people or would get so utterly disgusted with the situation that they end up just following their passion on their own. Because these Queen Bitches tend to have various connections...well, lets just say that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth and so these people end up losing most if not all their friends in that community. Poof, instant isolation.
You might think that I'm cranky and thinking this way just because I've had the misfortune to cross one of these demon crap, but there's more, which is thankfully much less disgusting. In all the years that I've been growing CPs, there have been two people who have stood out above the rest.
The first of these is an old guy I tracked down to his home in Australia. I was after the Australian pitcher plant, aka Cephalotus. It was and still is a relatively rare plant and at that point in time, the local CP community claimed was not possible to grow locally. So anyway, I met up with the guy and he was nice enough to sell me a seed-grown seedling, along with a few Pings(another kind of CP). He have me a LOT of very detailed and useful advice, along with showing me his collection, which he claimed wasn't much, but was frankly better than any local grower's, including mine. I left his place feeling quite lucky, especially because he was really a very nice and friendly guy, to treat a total stranger as such. Well, I didn't know just how lucky I was. In fact, I found out later that this guy was THE man when it came to Pings, with over 40 YEARS growing experience! He'd been growing those for longer than I had lived! Now this was a TRUE expert/guru and he was humble, nice and totally without airs! It did kind of also explain his initial reaction, which was "How the heck did you even find me?".
The second is a Dr. at the Cezch Institute of Botany. I initally contacted them to buy some Aldrovanda, another rare and difficult to grow CP, which they were doing some research on. He was the guy who replied to me and he was so much more friendly and knowledegable than the typical seller of CPs. I had thought that it was simply because he was some staff there and perhaps their culture was like that. Soon, I had a nice discussion going on with him over email. Plus, he also offered to replace some plants which didn't come in too great a condition. It was only later when I checked the Institute's site that I discovered that he was a Dr(Ph.D, not medical) and more or less the guy in charge of their research in Aldrovanda...and I was more or less on a first name basis with him! Again, humble, nice and without airs, in spite of being THE man.
These were two guys who had the passion, the skill and knowledge...and they were more or less hidden away from the typical CP grower and the CP community. The classic hermit profile. I've not met anyone like them in any of the CP communities I've been in, local or overseas(via online forums). If anyone, they're to thank for the fact that I've now got and am successfully growing almost every genera(minus one) of CP on the planet. As to how I tracked them down if they were really isolated enough to be 'hermits'...well, I'm not a lot of things, but anyone who knows me won't be able to deny that I am resourceful. Besides, that's the difference between Passion and mere Interest.
The fact is that in any of those communities, YES, even the local carnivorous plant growers circle, there's a shitload of politics going on. Hell, you'd think that in a community as small as this - we're talking about what? No more than 20-40 or so people tops? - people would be able to just help each other and develop on their interest and skill of growing CPs, but noooooooooooooo. In reality, there've been a few queen bitches(yes interestingly, all of them are female) who have been playing a nasty game of politics and using lies and backstabbing, plus a lot of sucking up, have been effectively getting rivals kicked out of the community. YES, this means YOU: C-I-N-D-Y N-G you disgustng, filthy, vermin-ridden piece of demon crap. If any of you readers ever go to one of those Garden Festivals or whatever, she'll be the one promoting pitcher plants or helping out at the booth of a certain nursery. Even spitting on her would be too good for her.
What does this have to do with hermits and gurus? Well, the people like her basically kill off anyone more skilled or who know more than themselves, while choosing a select 1 or 2 who are easy to manipulate and who can help them become hailed by the community as the top dog. WTF. If this means a community of thousands worship the crap you poop because they think you're truely l33t, that's one thing, but in a community of ~30?!?
Naturally, the people who have a true passion for that art/skill/etc would either end up 'killed off' by such people or would get so utterly disgusted with the situation that they end up just following their passion on their own. Because these Queen Bitches tend to have various connections...well, lets just say that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth and so these people end up losing most if not all their friends in that community. Poof, instant isolation.
You might think that I'm cranky and thinking this way just because I've had the misfortune to cross one of these demon crap, but there's more, which is thankfully much less disgusting. In all the years that I've been growing CPs, there have been two people who have stood out above the rest.
The first of these is an old guy I tracked down to his home in Australia. I was after the Australian pitcher plant, aka Cephalotus. It was and still is a relatively rare plant and at that point in time, the local CP community claimed was not possible to grow locally. So anyway, I met up with the guy and he was nice enough to sell me a seed-grown seedling, along with a few Pings(another kind of CP). He have me a LOT of very detailed and useful advice, along with showing me his collection, which he claimed wasn't much, but was frankly better than any local grower's, including mine. I left his place feeling quite lucky, especially because he was really a very nice and friendly guy, to treat a total stranger as such. Well, I didn't know just how lucky I was. In fact, I found out later that this guy was THE man when it came to Pings, with over 40 YEARS growing experience! He'd been growing those for longer than I had lived! Now this was a TRUE expert/guru and he was humble, nice and totally without airs! It did kind of also explain his initial reaction, which was "How the heck did you even find me?".
The second is a Dr. at the Cezch Institute of Botany. I initally contacted them to buy some Aldrovanda, another rare and difficult to grow CP, which they were doing some research on. He was the guy who replied to me and he was so much more friendly and knowledegable than the typical seller of CPs. I had thought that it was simply because he was some staff there and perhaps their culture was like that. Soon, I had a nice discussion going on with him over email. Plus, he also offered to replace some plants which didn't come in too great a condition. It was only later when I checked the Institute's site that I discovered that he was a Dr(Ph.D, not medical) and more or less the guy in charge of their research in Aldrovanda...and I was more or less on a first name basis with him! Again, humble, nice and without airs, in spite of being THE man.
These were two guys who had the passion, the skill and knowledge...and they were more or less hidden away from the typical CP grower and the CP community. The classic hermit profile. I've not met anyone like them in any of the CP communities I've been in, local or overseas(via online forums). If anyone, they're to thank for the fact that I've now got and am successfully growing almost every genera(minus one) of CP on the planet. As to how I tracked them down if they were really isolated enough to be 'hermits'...well, I'm not a lot of things, but anyone who knows me won't be able to deny that I am resourceful. Besides, that's the difference between Passion and mere Interest.
