Requiem for a Tree
He stood tall, handsome, proud. He had held his place, stood his ground, for decades, demanding nothing, offering shade and a respite for winged creatures. But he was within 2 feet of my home, towering over it, growling through storms, shaking the foundation. So today we took him down. (Actually it took 8 men 3 days to bring him down.)
I apologized to him. But the truth remains: we murdered a magnificent pine tree.
I found myself saying that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But isn't that what Colonel Tibbets said when he dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima? "That's their tough luck for being there." Tibbets named the bomb for his Mother. That's almost more than my mind can handle. Tibbets became a decorated Brigadier General. His victims became radiation dust.
I had requested the removal, and that haunts me. First the branches, then the limbs, then the mighty trunk came thundering down. Lacerated, eviscerated, decimated, devastated. There was no warning as he awaited his destiny. The sawdust spread on the surround, shreds of dignity, morsels of morbidity.
Did I whistle a happy tune as the mammoth tree of Democracy crumbled, shattered, and fell?
We are all capable of murder. Some of us choose not to. Yet we are all born to human parents, gestated in the womb, fed through the umbilical cord.
Today I murdered a tree.
And I cried, until a friend reminded me that trees have deep roots underground, roots that spread inexorably through the underbelly of the earth.
Did I feel better? Not a bit.
Until I understood that you can knock Democracy down, trounce it, trample it, but its roots lie deep in the human soul, waiting to re-emerge, when folly vanishes and fools falter.
c. Corinne Whitaker 2026 and always
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copyright 2026 Corinne Whitaker
