Out of the Way Places

Last week, while planning our drive to the beach for the holiday weekend, my wife noticed that we would be driving right through Bishopville, SC. She then informed me why that mattered, because she’s better at remembering these things than I am. It is the home of Pearl Fryar’s Topiary Garden.

Then, of course, she reminded me why that mattered. 😉

We had seen a documentary about Pearl and the work he was doing in his garden a while back, and we both actually found it somewhat fascinating. Naturally, we would be stopping.

I didn’t really expect to see Pearl out and about, talking about his plants, and his sculptures, but it was a pleasant surprise to us to find him out doing exactly that.

As interesting, and different, as his work is, the highlight was easily listening to him talk about why he did certain things, or describe his very unique work as “just a bunch of cut up bushes”. Listening to him did serve as a good reminder that you can’t stand out if you just keep doing the same thing everyone else is doing. You have to be willing to try something different, to actually BE different than everyone else. Such a valuable lesson, no matter what your chosen vocation.

I am very glad we made that a stop at this small, out of the way, place. Sometimes, you have to be willing to go somewhere different in order to be reminded of important life lessons. You can see the rest of the photos from our short stop over at Flickr.

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