Let Us Take a Lesson from the Trees
This is one of those times in human history
As a species, we are relatively new, without the tricks devised by much older life-forms in their bid to survive.
Wayne and I just attended a lecture by a richly informed ecologist and conservation botanist named Tom Wessels. I took notes, recognizing material for poems in every slide of the local flora he explicated for his rapt audience, which was peppered with our friends and friends of friends. Such is life in country places, at least in this part of the country, where communities are tight, and both art and science are held in high regard.
Everything Tom Wessels said was in utter agreement with everything I believe.
Mutuality abounds in the natural world in which we live. And yet we neglect to thank the trees, when we pass beneath them, for their exhalations that keep us alive, and the serendipity of their need that cleans the carbon from our air.
Generosity comes as second nature to trees, which—like us—thrive much better in altruistic communities than as individuals trying to grab as many resources as they can for themselves.
Memo to all the striving billionaires and oligarchs out there: Survival of the fittest is an outmoded leftover of the patriarchy. In the long run, it will not serve you well.
The cultivation of mutuality and altruism are crucial to humankind’s survival. They are, in this writer’s opinion, the only things that will make us deserve to survive as a species.
Yes, we strive. All of us have dreams about what we hope to accomplish before we die—and about the legacy we’d like to leave.
But all that any of us needs for a sense of fulfillment, really, is to feel seen: to feel witnessed and appreciated for what’s best and most generous in ourselves. To realize our own potential to further the cause of life on Earth, and understand how we, as individuals, are part of the whole.
This is a gift that every parent has the potential to give their child. If all of us felt a sense of belonging in the universe, we would be that much closer to fostering the goodness and generosity that we all have locked up in our DNA.
Evil-doers are activated by feelings of inadequacy and shame. Malignant narcissists feed on the fear and awe they inspire.
Let us deprive the strongmen of the world of the oxygen our attention provides for them. Let us disarm them by laughing at their puffed-up pretensions. And, when nothing else works, let us muster our courage and strength to stand up against them.
At various times in human history, such men have grown so bloated with their evil that the courage and altruism of others was the sole thing that could defeat them.
This is, I believe, one of those times in human history.
What I’ve Learned from Living with a Violist
Every musician is part of the root system of every musician and every composer who ever was. An orchestra is a better illustration than almost anything else in our culture of generosity and mutuality.
It takes all the players to create the sound, to convey the beauty and profundity of the music. Each instrument matters in the orchestra’s ecology.
There’s no hoarding of resources. Each section must be attuned to every other. The soloist, if there is one, climbs up on the metaphorical shoulders of the section players—and, from that platform of surging beauty, can take flight.
Humankind can do it: We have the potential to evolve into a fully participating member of the sublime web of life on this planet. To be part of the orchestra. Maybe, at times—in short, gorgeous bursts of creativity—even to be a soloist.
The important thing is, in any walk of life, to give with passionate generosity whatever goodness and talent we possess. To give what we have in support of the whole: in support of all of it, every living thing, and also the inorganic things that allow the whole beautiful accident of life on Earth to thrive.
What a miracle that all of this involves sublime and celestial Beauty. The transporting beauty of music. Words that have the power to crack even the hardest hearts open. The heart-stopping beauty of a flower. Of the cloud-strewn sky and the stars at night. Of something as precious and ephemeral as love. Of something as noble as friendship.
Electron microscopy of a single cell reveals the same visual geometry as our views of the planets and stars from outer space. All of us are part of the ecstatically gorgeous patterns of the cosmos, which are so clearly interrelated.
The roots of the trees and the mycorrhizal network underground have known this for as long as life has thrived on Earth.
It’s our turn now, with our big brains and beautiful imaginations, to commandeer the next stage of our evolution—before it’s too late to justify the space we take up on this planet.
There are bad actors, even in Nature: parasitic plants that suck the life out of others while giving nothing back to promote the health of the whole. Nature has a way of weeding out the parts of the whole that are selfish, destructive and greedy.
All of us have agency to say no to evil, prejudice and hatred. All of us have the ability to cultivate empathy and loving kindness, not just for our species but for all of life.
I suspect that Mother Earth won’t give us another 10,000 years to get a clue. We have to become loving and respectful inhabitants of this planet right now.
Let us worship goodness and wisdom instead of money and power. And for those of you who’ve accumulated money and power, put it to use to help others and heal the world.
Let us take a lesson from the trees.
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For links to my books, published poetry, interviews and other bonus material, visit my author website, www.BarbaraQuick.com