The comedian Gallagher — yes, the one who smashes the watermellons with the sledge-o-matic — does this bit about weeds. He says it’s hard to teach a three-year-old about gardening, because they’re not sophisticated enough yet to know the difference between a plant and a weed… That if you water it and it dies, it’s a plant; if you pull it out and it grows back, it’s a weed.

Whenever I see dandelions, I think of that joke. But lately, I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s better to be a weed than a plant. All this nourishing and nurturing — it’s hard work. Perhaps it’s best to be the kind of person whose juice ignites the field in a mass take-over of yellow wish-potential.