The Nearly Good Life

There is, in one corner of the garden, a wild patch containing a number of mature Dandelions. Periodically I throw a dustbin lid over them and use the blanched leaves in salad. They are still slightly bitter but something like sorrel. I dug it over yesterday and removed all the dandelions, which set me to thinking, always a more attractive process than digging.
When one inspects a dandelion rosette the newest leaves are closest to the soil, so as new leaves develop why does the plant not get taller and taller? In fact it remains at the same depth relative to the surface. The root must be costantly adjusting the depth and drawing the upper parts down as they grow. A glance at the root shows horizontal wrinkles round the circumferance where this movement has occurred.
This process is common to many plants and is most obvious in corms such as crocus and crocosmia. If one digs up a congested bunch of crocosmia each corm will be attached to five or six withered corms below, which can be removed before replanting. If the corms were not capable of adjusting their depth they would soon be above the surface. Stout roots will be noticed below the newest corm and they change their thickness constantly, enabling the corm to remain at its favourite depth. The chosen depth varies with soil type and water content and probably depends on soil atmospheric conditions.
The discussion today was about religeon, Arthur having heard a conversation between the Archbishop of Canterbury and some Today programme hack. The consensus seemed to be that nobody believes in God anymore so the A of C was wasting his breath. My own opinion is that the existence or otherwise of God hardly matters, and that our English way of life has been formed by the interface and standoff of poliics and Christianity. The socialisation of The Church in Victorian times, which gave birth to the mission to improve the lives of working people by such arcane routes as the formulation of the rules of football, gave an example of living not just for ourselves but with some regard to the wellbeing of others.
I think I mean that Christianity teaches a good way to live even if, as I believe, there is no hereafter. Call me existential if you like, I've been called worse and quite recently, but to freely translate the name of this Blog: Virtue is the only nobility.