By Siena George
‘They’re just spider plants, they can survive anything.’
I was once told this after expressing worry for my most loyal of houseplants, the humble spider plant. The comment was flippant, expressed with an air of cruelty, and clearly meant as something obvious. Everybody knows spider plants can survive ‘anything.’ But it never occurred to me that I was meant to be caring for something simply so it could survive.
The culture around house plants reflects our desire to engage with the non-human. In a world organised around the dominance of humanity above all others it is a potentially subversive act to love and care for a plant, something so easily portrayed as useless. The extent of our care, and how we care for plants is not the same as care toward a friend or a pet but this difference does not mean it is not love. The ritual of watering and sheltering our houseplants could not be a reflection of anything other than care.
As humans living in the 21st century, we are constantly exploiting or degrading plants and vegetation – whether directly or indirectly. This is what makes the phenomenon of houseplants distinct and one that fosters a greater bond between human and plant. The dynamic has shifted, and we are able to appreciate the non-human plant outside of its potential for human advancement or profit. It is in caring for the sake of caring rather than caring for self-reward that makes the relationship between human and houseplant so rich. We give up time, space, capital and water for plants as a means of acknowledging the plant’s existence, purpose and autonomy in our world. The plant takes on meanings beyond its material existence as the human constructs feelings of familiarity and connection in relation to the plant. Similarly, the plant is intimately tied to the human through its dependence on the human for not merely survival but prosperity in the non-native environment of a home.
This seemingly ‘worthless’ love between plant and human is an important act of resistance against the ever-increasing emphasis on productivity. The ways we love and care influence our ability to create new understandings of the world around us and the incredible diversity of actors within it. It is imperative that we question why we should only love those who are portrayed as ‘lovable’ or ‘worth loving’ and who gets to define these categories? How can challenging the normative performances of care enable more equitable relationships between humans, non-humans and wider planetary systems?
The more we care to promote collective welfare, as opposed to accepting basic, biologically defined survival, the more we expand the possibilities in our worldly experience. I want to care and love as widely as I have the capacity to and never as an idealistic aspiration but as an essential mode of living. Perhaps it is silly, but to me it could not be more apparent that my spider plants are as justified in receiving love and respect as you or I.
As humans we love not because it is necessary, but because the world is deserving of love.
Featured Image: Ju Seonyo