Trees

666

Trees are the beauty of this Earth. I think they're underestimated.

On one hand, trees are very useful; they're the single biggest carbon sink on the planet. Think about it: wood is just concentrated carbon, similar to coal in the ground.

Wood itself is a gracious material. It's availability and feasibility has made it one of the first (if not the first) material people ever used. It seems like almost everything can be made from wood; tools, houses, vehicles, even. Yet, at the same time, it's still a material from which we make incredible, moving, precious art.

Most importantly, trees are somewhat transcendental. Have you ever hugged a tree? Or laid down in a forest?

For me, trees are incredibly calming. Drawing energy from the ground, always in the same place. Yet susceptible to the same effects of weather, wind, rain. I, as a human, am always in motion. How much different would I be if I was, like a tree, rooted in the ground, in a single place? Sometimes I like to imagine I'm a tree.

At last, trees are helpless. Helpless in the face of human destruction. Today, when on the bus, I saw huge swaths of trees being cut down for the new ring road. It hurt, hurt really badly, straight in the heart. Sure, I want to drive on the new ring road. But the trees? Is anyone going to replant them? Most likely not. More beauty lost to humanity's growth.

We need to be more thankful. More gracious. Trees have been our best friends for millennia. It's time we start treating them like we should.