September 15, 2024
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
I was all set to write today when I opened my cartoonist friend Liza Donnelly’s Seeing Things newsletter. It had a cartoon of a doctor ordering her patient: “Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, talk politics for twenty-four hours.”
Today has been as busy in the news as all the days lately seem to be, but I figured Liza was right that we need a break. Buddy and I spent the day like this turtle, taking it easy and enjoying the warmth of the summer's end.
I'll be back at it tomorrow.
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Notes:
Seriously, Ma'am, you need only write three times each week, four at the most. The subscription rate would still be the best around for such informed essays.
trees...I like thinking about trees. They are amazing beings. Imagine a life spent standing in one place for a hundred, two hundred, even a thousand years. Growing taller, bigger, reaching for the sun; taking little molecules like C02 and turning them into long, straight timber-like trunks and branches, transpiring water into the air, humidifying and cooling, producing leaves or needles that build soil around them year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
Imagine if they had voices; what kind of stories would they tell. What would they witness, under their branches? What kind of view? Swaying in heavy wind, drinking in sunshine, weighed down by ice and snow. Standing shoulder to shoulder with others, witnessing seasons come and go, providing shelter to all manner of life without fail. Even in death, they give more life for half a century or more on the forest floor.
There's no guile in a tree. No deceit, no trickery. They stand for what's real, what's durable, what's reliable. They indicate where life can take hold and thrive. They create and support diversity. They create shelter, calm. Where there are trees, there is an abundance of life. I have some favorites on my land, but every one of them is remarkable, smaller and larger. It's always better where there are trees.