I recalled this scene when I read some religious texts celebrating the totally opposite spirit of real tress -- their graciousness toward humankind. As the 9th-century Srimad Bhagavatam puts it: "The whole life of these trees are spent in service. With their leaves, fruits, flowers, branches, roots, fragrance, sap, bark, wood, and finally even their ashes as coal, they exist purely for others."
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| tree of life in church in Sweden |
We humans are able to verbally communicate gratitude to another human being in ways we cannot to other species. And so some Hindu writings personify trees as a way of expressing their goodness. For example, the Vikrama Charitram says: "Trees are like good people who care for others." The contemporary writer Kamala Vasudevan interprets this verse, explaining why trees can be pictured as being altruistic. He writes: "They have to keep standing in the sun but they give shade to others. Whatever fruits they bear, they do not eat themselves, but give it to others. So kind they are."
It is not only humans who are served by trees. Our contemporary knowledge from the science of ecology has shown how intricate are the multiple interrelationships in the "tree of life." One poetic way such interrelationships have been traditionally symbolized in India has been through the Neem tree, which is depicted as being a mother to the "daughter" sparrows who grow up with mother's support before flying off to new homes. One lovely tribute to trees using that symbol is a traditional "swing song," a song that can be sung to the rhythm of a swing hung in a tree. Part of it goes this way:
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| Bengali quilt |
"Father, never cut this Neem tree,
The Neem offers rest to sparrows,
Father, never trouble your daughters [or else]
All the sparrows will fly away,
The Neem will feel so lonely."
Imagining this song in a movie scene, I picture a girl swinging in a homemade swing while singing the song. It would be a scene to enjoy. Hopefully it might inspire gratitude in me as well, because I wouldn't want trees throwing their apples at me!
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Do you remember any trees you have benefited from in tangible or intangible ways?
(The quote by Vasudevan is from "The Great 'Tree' of Human Life"
in the Deccan Herald, Sunday June 6, 2004, ©.)
(The stained glass photo is by Håkan Svensson, and is used under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)
2 comments:
Your writing about trees in the movie Wizard of Oz made me remember another movie in which a tree plays an important role. In To Kill a Mockingbird the boy finds mysterious things left by someone in the big knothole in an old tree. He collects them secretly and then tells his sister about them. It is all part of the mystery that gets resolved at the movie's ending.
I agree that trees are remarkable and provide countless services to other forest critters, plants, and humans. I have considered numerous trees important companions in my life and have found myself in tears more than once on the death (natural or human-caused) of large, old trees.
However I rebel at any hint that the purpose of trees is to live for others. If humans can live for themselves and rabbits can live for themselves, then trees can certainly live as means to their own ends. While we do benefit from their "leaves, fruits, flowers, branches, roots, fragrance, sap, bark, wood, and finally even their ashes" that is not their *reason" for living. To assume that a tree, or a plant, or any creature, however small, exists to serve humans or other human-preferred animals is to commit not only a error in logic but also a pre-Galilean error in theology. When Galileo Galilei discovered that the fuzziness of the Milky Way was made up of uncountable numbers of stars, people were shocked. After all, why would God create so many stars that we couldn't even see? Isn't that a waste? It takes a long time for the Church to cope with this idea: that God can care for much more than just humans; that we are not the only concern. All creatures may be their own excuse for being.
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