When I was nine I heard a song that still remains one of my favorites.  It is Bette Midler’s “The Rose.”  That song has stayed with me from the very first time I ever heard it.  Not only does she have one of the best voices of our time, in my opinion, it is a song that has longevity in terms of both lyrics and musicality.  I have sung this song as a lullaby to my little girl and wished her sweet dreams.  Recently she got some glitter roses and I was surprised and pleased that she wanted to give one to me for Mother’s Day.  She also took this picture.  I am not sure how well you can see it but I believe you get the sentiment.  I found myself once again going to church sporting tattoos on the backs of my hands just as I did as a child, much to my mother’s eternal chagrin, and thanks to Cracker Jacks.  Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of English literature, once wrote, “And she was fair as is the rose in May.”  I hope I will always be that fair rose for my daughter — just as my mother was always that fair rose for me.  Roses have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics.  According to fossil evidence, the rose is over 35 million years old.  In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including North Africa.  The classic red rose began its illustrious symbolic history in Greek and Roman iconography, where it was tied to Aphrodite and Venus, the goddess of love.  Later, in early Christian times, it became associated with the virtue of the Virgin Mary.  All I know is that I have always loved the rose.