TREES MAKE THE NEWS
British historian Thomas Pakenham's real passion is trees. "Huge trees. Majestic trees. Misshapen trees. Historic trees. Trees, as he puts it, with 'noble brows and strong personalities' that are impossible to ignore." In the Science section of the October 11, 2002 issue of Time Magazine, Pakenham's work is honored, along with his (and our) beloved trees. With a best-selling book and a BBC series, the response to his work is demonstrating the massive interest in and love for trees that so many of us share. This innovative author and photographer classifies his trees by personality type: "gods and goddesses, grizzlies, dwarfs, aliens and ghosts." As silent sentinels, there they stand. We huddle in our homes for warmth from the freezing cold, and there they stand, alone and still in the night. We make love, we make war, and there they stand, peaceful and present. They live, they know health and sickness, and they die, just like we do. They clean our air for us. We build our homes from them and burn their dead in our fireplaces for heat. They offer us beauty and cool shade from the sun. They are our friends. Spending time with a tree, you can feel its stillness. It will offer its peace to you freely, if you slow down long enough to tune in. California's General Sherman Sequoia is known as the "largest living thing." In Sri Lanka, there is a bo tree 2,200 years old. Join me in a moment of appreciation for the silent sentinels, the grand and generous spirits we know simply as trees.
