in honor of a tree

i woke up to the sounds of chainsaws and heavy machinery tearing out a tree on the corner of albemarle and laurel today. the city is removing it, probably because it has some sickness that i can't see. regardless, it makes me sad.

i grew up in a quirky house on stilts that my dad built in the country. we were surrounded by acres of woods that my sister and i explored, played in, and ruled. i did not know that much of that land was actually owned by a paper company, until one day we came home to find it was being clear cut. i will never forget that trauma of seeing my forests, my trees being torn from the earth and discarded like weeds. i was shocked and astounded. it took a lot of explaining from my parents to help us understand why this had happened. the clear cutting took all summer and my sister and i would ride our bikes to the end of our dirt road to heckle the men doing the job. we'd yell, "trees have feelings too!" but much to our chargrin, they could rarely hear us over the roar of their machinery, and when they could, they'd laugh at the little hippie girls trying to save the trees. eventually they were done. the loaded up all the logs and drove away and left a desolate and empty mess behind that felt like a battlefield to me.

anyhow, that experience stayed with me, and it always breaks my heart just a little bit when a tree must be cut down.

so in honor of the tree on the corner, i'm posting this polaroid i took of it several summers ago. it was a lovely tree.