The Wisdom of Razi...and Flowers

My travels brought me to Denver, Colorado this past week, for a series of meetings and other such stuff.  As usual I also try to get away and sightsee a little.  Rather than simply post nice photos and give boring descriptions, I also like to wax philosophical on these occasions.  The opportunities simply abound, and it was during my cab ride back to the airport I had such an encounter.

The driver's name was Razi.  He was from Casablanca and has lived in the US for 20 years.  Being an immigrant myself, I am always fascinated with the stories of others and learning about their journey.  Somehow our discussion went from Moroccan influence on Spanish architecture, to the contributions of other civilizations over several millenia.  Though he didn't say so, I suspect he follows an Islamic tradition, and we discussed Arabic contributions to our English numbering system...an important thing for us engineers.  That's when he made an interesting comment, about how each civilization's contributions makes the next one better, and so on.  Were it not so, he said, it would be as if all the flowers look the same and are the same color.

Profound!

I had visited the Denver Botanic Gardens earlier, and Razi's comment brought the deliriously beautiful displays back into my mind.  It is true, you know. As I wandered about the Gardens and the tropical conservatory, I was treated to a vast array of plants, insects...and yes, lovely colors.

Inside the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory one finds an amazing collection of colors and shapes. 

The Conservatory is a structure of interlaced concrete arches, and made possible through the estate of Claude Boettcher, of the Ideal Cement Company (hence the concrete, of course).  It is the largest single tropical conservatory in the US, and my images don't even do it justice.  It's a beautiful place.

The surrounding gardens have all sorts of themes.  The water lilies are in the Monet area, in which I could've lingered for a long time.

 I've heard this referred to as a "Chocolate Sunflower", and the backlighting by the sun apparently pleases the honeybee.

Of course, gardens need water, and water attracts insects, which become food for larger insects like this Dragonfly (and yes...I'm certain someone will correct me in saying this is something different.  Please do.  I don't mind learning more about these gorgeous creatures).

Visiting a garden such as Denver's, and meeting philosophers like Razi are truly the spice of life.  Especially when we are faced with the tragedy of the shootings in nearby Aurora, Colorado (which occured not long after I left Razi's car), it is good to be reminded of the beauty of our world

See the links below for more information on the gardens.
http://www.botanicgardens.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boettcher_Memorial_Tropical_Conservatory