The Dandelion Model

Driving home from the Farmer's Market in Lunenburg,
 through the melting snow of yesterday's fall
I was listening to CBC and
learned about the Danish social entrepreneur,
Thorkil Sonne's, Dandelion Model.

My ears perked up.  Let's just
say that my lawn in Virginia,
which grows incrementally
smaller each year as edibles
replace the grass, is home
to dandelions.  Unfortunately for my neighbours,
 I do not herbicide or even weed
nature's gift of this healing plant.






 Dent-de-lion, Lions Tooth
as the French called it;

weed or natures' pharmaceutical giant?

While some in the New World
 wage war on the dandelion 

France, Germany and China

cultivate the herb.
It is considered by many to be nature's champion tonic 

to stimulate the immune system,

 cleanse the blood of toxins 

and rejuvenate the whole body.

I guess it is all a matter of perspective

or which side of the fence you're sitting on.

For Thorkil Sonne, he's on the side of

the dandelion people, those who suffer

from  Autism Spectrum Disorder.  

He chooses the dandelion as a metaphor;

"Most of us don’t want it in our gardens – it doesn't  fit in."

Or does it?  Sonne founded Specialisterne or The Specialists,

a foundation that connects autistic adult consultants with

business enterprises.  With their incredible attention to detail

and their phenomenal memory and their ability to follow 

routine day after day, Sonne believes that

given the right environment, an autistic adult
could not just hold down a job but also be the best person for it.

Sonne took a tragedy, the diagnos of his three year old
son with Infantile Autism and turned it into
a foundation that is employing the previously
thought of as unemployable.

With the Dandelion Model,
he invites us to  decide,
in numerous areas of our lives,

weed or seed?