Children

Remember that children, marriages and flower gardens 

reflect the kind of care they get.

~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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It's funny how we use language.  Bwaa ha ha ha!  Like that.  See what I did?  I tried to use language to convey laughter.  Anyway, that's not at all what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about how we add a word to a word and get very different meanings than the original word.

Let's take the word, "children" for example.  But let's not add just any word, let's add a plant word.  That might seem odd, until you think about how we compare children to plants all the time.  "He's growing like a weed," or "His dad grows weed," or "Let's call that kid 'broccoli boy!'"  Or how about this?:  How come "flower children" are peaceful and kind and easy-going and "children of the corn" are stereotyped very differently?  And why do flower children get the gentler image?  Do we like flowers more than corn?  What about corn flour - doesn't that throw the whole equation off?

Of course if "children of the corn" are scary, then "children of the candy corn" are terrifying.  And I'm not talking about toddlers on a sugar-high.  I'm talking about the fact that I hate candy corn.