Yesterday, February 4, 2014, John Mulligan apologized to the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of Target.  Shoppers in aisle three may remember last month’s news story about the hip chain—a data breach that compromised the data of millions of consumers.

The Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer said “I want to say how deeply sorry we are for the impact this incident has had on our guests…”

I’m sure Mr. Mulligan is a perfectly lovely man and he looks sufficiently contrite in an online photo montage.  He also looks determined; he is reported to have said that the chain is now accelerating implementation of a new, smarter point-of-sale technology that will provide shoppers in aisle three with additional safety as they peruse and purchase the many things they may or may not need.

I’ve been a “guest” at Target once or twice; I bought some Mrs. Meyers lavender-scented laundry detergent.  Something about the big red bull’s eye hovering over the door made me uncomfortable and I wondered if the target was actually on me and my pocketbook.  I haven’t been back since.  This morning’s mental perambulations around the retail perimeter left me wondering “what would the world be like if Americans weren’t consumers?”

Sigh…that’s like imagining a world without automobiles and speeding motorists.

After I skimmed the Mulligan story and remembered Mrs. Meyers, I did some research on lavender.  One of my friends had asked me about growing the fragrant plant which grew in abundance at the Communiss Garden.  Lavender is trendy and the fragrant farms are often “agritourist” destinations.  Consider Sequim, Washington.  It’s the “Lavender Capital of North America” and attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.

Growing lavender is not without breaches and schisms.  In 2011, a group of lavender farmers broke away from the Sequim Lavender Growers Association to form the Sequim Lavender Farmers Association, citing philosophical and administrative differences.  They host their own festival, too, and now Sequim celebrates more lavender-centric events than ever.  It’s the epi-center of Lavandula although there’s no Target store there.

I don’t need to grow lavender.  I don’t have plans to start a lavender farm or a festival and even though lavender is trending right now, the bubble could burst tomorrow.  Growing lavender cannot save the world.  That would just be “Lavandu-mania” talk.

I’ll order one package of lavender seeds this year and keep it simple.

Tiny Steps!