renewal pruning

That vicaria has grown since I adopted this long neglected garden patch. I've made attempts at trimming or controlling her on more that a few occasions. I chop back at the running roots and evict the new growth from places it emerges in attempts to hog all possible water and sun for itself. I noticed that the blooming was pretty weak this year. She's getting lazy. Finally someone tells me how to manage this rambler. Cut it down to 3", pull up running roots and cut a canal around where I'd wish it to end. Today I can only handle the first part and take a thick corner of bushes down to the ground. In the center of the spread, no surprise, is a mass of dead stalks.

Now, I am told, I can prune the re-growth properly and keep it under control. However I can't help but to feel for this plant as I have at the many shoots. A neglected growth that's been allowed to follow her instincts even as they lead astray. And now comes the "renewal pruning" what feels more, I'm sure, like punishment. I've been renewal pruned a couple of times in my life, I know. Cut down to the ground with little more explanation than what hindsight has mustered. I wish I could grab all the drunks I see struggle and show them this plant. I can list the women I'd like to bring to this garden every week to see the progress. I wish I could pull up an audience of all the people I know who have been in pain and wondered why oh why the universe seemed to be taking a crap on them.

Why? Why did HE leave you? Why did you loose the money? Why didn't it work out? Why did things fall apart? Why did you get so sick? Why must you suffer?

Don't cling to those branches of yourself as they are taken away. they were never you to begin with. They were killing you in the middle, really, your life was becoming choked out with the ever expanding volume of yourself. The vicaria will not ask me why I snip her vigorously back to the ground. She will just grow again. And this time, she'll bloom much brighter to celebrate life while it lasts, knowing that me and my knippers are never far away.