Sequoia Park Eureka CA
THE ART OF TREE
It is strange how one thing leads to another. Last week I visited my Daughter in Torrance to meet my new Great Grand Son. While there, she gave me a book, The Over Story by Richard Powers. A few years ago when I was rereading On Walden Pond, by Thoreau,I wondered at the time why I haven't come by any other who would write such a book that touched my heart. At last, this book by Powers ends my quest.
I have always had a 'thing' about Trees. I have planted them, hugged them, raked the leaves from them, Photographed them and Painted them. Although my belief system is not of the formal religious theology of churches or the bible, I have a feeling deep in my central nervous system that the light within us all is the result of the creative force which makes life possible, and is eternal if left alone.
Children have always climbed trees, I did when as a child reached for that elusive walnut, sweet and crisp in my mouth, and always, always reached for one more. I would hide in the tree, reading my books and becoming invisible to the outside world, and melding with the branches of my inside self.
When as a teacher, my privilege was to lead the children's choir for the Spring Sing. Joyce Kilmer's Tree was the last on the program. The light in their eyes, the sweet knowledge of their innocence, for me, always led to the tears of recognition of our Earth's plight.
As one small boy at the Oceanside Museum of Art told me one day when I asked him what his sculpture was about, he told me, " It's all Connected". His eyes shining with the knowledge of his young world view astounded me, but when considered later, I was certain that the light his eyes came from a universal source.
All Connected by 5th grade Student
Our planet's trees are the life giving source of oxygen essential for our lives, and yet, we keep cutting them down to make stuff that will never give us the source of life, and that trees make our planet green. The Pulitzer Prize book by Powers gives the adult version of Tree. It will picture in your minds eye, the beauty and the inter-connectiveness of all living beings plants, animals, and human beings.
