"..Unlike people, roses probably do not consider themselves as having a purpose in life. But if a rose bush did have a mission, I expect its greatest sense of achievement would come from creating, not just a whole lot of beautiful flowers, but the grand array of round, red rose hips which come after them..

Rose hips, as you know, are a concentrated source of vitamin C, the vitamin which does so much to protect our immune systems and shield us from illness. They are also very lovely objects in their own right. They are smooth and glowing, each one compact and complete in itself

I often think of the elderwoman as a kind of rose hip. .......

.......The wisdom of the elders is the vitamin C of traditional, human communities. It protects them from attack by alien forces and from being swept away by the flood of new and untested ideas or destroyed by the cancer of internal conflict..."

Elderwoman. page 267