The florist and community ritual...

Tiger Lily is located in Teaneck, home to a growing and vibrant observant Jewish population. We are nearing the end of the Jewish High Holy Days, including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot and Simcha Torah. Much of our business centers around Shabbat on Fridays, when men customarily stop in to buy flowers for their wives, often accompanied by exuberant children, calling out "Shabbat Shalom! Good Shabbos!"

I have been struck by the unique position that a florist occupies in the community. We have the opportunity to assist or facilitate so many varied rituals. In the Teaneck community, where there are 40 different languages spoken at the local middle school, there is a wealth of such rituals - it is a full-time occupation to try and keep track of them all and to comprehend their significance. We are privileged, indeed.

So much of the floral industry's trade journals concentrate on marketing, maximizing profit and high-tech tracking of COGs (cost-of-goods). I have yet to see anyone write about quiet pleasure of assisting a family in celebrating their gratefulness for being and for each other, or the role of the florist as bartender/psychologist/faith healer, trying to help a ususally decent guy get out of the doghouse.

There may be a little less profit in this approach. But there is an ineffable connection to our community that, I would argue, is so much more important.