As Spring arrives. I am reminded of lilacs. Smell is one of our most robust senses, and can immediately take us back to another time and place. The way that the aroma of Cinnabons probably reminds us of a warm kitchen (even if we are hiking down an airport concourse). The smell of patchouli oil reminds just about everyone of hippies. Diesel reminds some of living in Europe.
The smell of lilacs reminds me of grade school. Lilacs bloomed outside the windows, and as the nuns threw the windows open wide, the aroma of freshly blossomed lilacs permeated the room. I thought I was an isolated experience until I ran into a third-grade classmate Betty Schweizer, now CEO at technology company TIES. When I told her about lilacs, she nodded her head and smiled.
As a twist, I was telling someone else about the lilac experience, and he told me how older people say that the smell of lilacs reminds them of death.
Why?
Because in olden times, when people died during the Winter months, they were stored in ice rooms until Spring and the ground thawed. When the ground was finally soft enough to dig six feet under, the lilacs were also in bloom.
[Primal Branding is a construct that lets you design a belief system using the seven pieces of primal code: creation story, creed, icons, rituals, sacred words, nonbelievers, and leader. Used together these seven pieces of code create a system of belief that attracts brand communities and public appeal for products and services, personalities, political and social movements, even civic communities.]
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