Meditation: Behold the Power of Trees
I love trees. Do you love trees, too?
Oddly enough, some folks feel absolute terror at the prospect of being lost in the woods. Think of The Blair Witch Project or Deliverance. Without a sense of bearings, of direction, or of civilization, many folks think of the woods and see the forest for every single one of its trees…looming over them with absolute malevolence. Think of the Ents in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (pretty scary looking despite ultimately proving benevolent) or the trees in The Evil Dead (especially the “rape” scene!). Yes, with nothing but wood and foliage on every side, with almost no chinks in the wall or signposts for how to get beyond it, humans may well be justified in dreading The Big Bad Woods.
Ironic, this dread is, when it comes to my fellow environmentalists. After all, we are “treehuggers,” right? But, honestly, how many of you have actually gone out and hugged a tree lately, hmmm? Do you have bits of bark clinging to your khakis? Do you encircle your brows with fresh-plucked boughs like some ancient Roman Caesar, hmmm? Do you have tree books and posters and T-shirts and coffee mugs and figurines cluttering up your living quarters, hmmm? I bet you do not! Pshaw! What kind of a treehugger are you, anyway?
