MY CONUNDRUM OVER THE TREE by Linda Lee Greene

MY CONUNDRUM OVER THE TREE©

The front door of my condo faces due west. Five paces beyond the door at a southwest diagonal grew a towering tree, a tree nearly sixty years of age and that had outgrown the space allocated to it. Its canopy overhung the roof of my condo, and presented a constant threat to it. Every high wind or storm of any kind hurled broken branches at the windows and dropped them on the roof of my place. My yard was also littered with its debris all year long. I wrote a letter to the condo association requesting that the tree be cut down. Today, the dirty deed was done while I was out running errands. And now I feel positively unholy for having been the impetus behind the demise of that magnificent tree.

I know! I know! I suppose I am being absolutely irrational about it. But I can’t help it. I love trees. Trees are as sacred to me as are elephants and whales and tigers. None of those precious beings should be sacrificed for our comfort—die a natural death, of course, but mowed down to satisfy humanity’s cravings, no!  And to make matters worse, once the tree was down and all evidence of it erased from my landscape, I realized with sinking regret, and maybe even a guilty conscience, that in the year I have lived in my condo, I never got to know that tree. I was always so peed off at it that I closed my eyes to everything about it but its negative attributes. I didn’t study the texture of its bark or the shape of its leaves…I cannot tell you what kind of a tree it was. I don’t know if it was an oak or a walnut or some other genus of tree. Now I wonder if I will miss the shade it provided against the blaring western sun come summer. I also wonder if it screamed in pain as its arms and legs were lopped off; and I can’t bear to think about its consciousness, its spirit? Where did it go? Is there a tree heaven?  

Life just loves to throw me with conundrums like this one. On the one hand, the tree had to go, and on the other, it shouldn’t have had to go. Would trimming it have solved the problem? I don’t know. I am a tree lover, not a tree doctor. There is a glaring parallel here that I see in the relationships among people. Maybe it is suggesting that taking a deep breath and slowing down and setting aside our anger, and then taking a second look before cutting a fellow human being off at the knees just might reveal a middle way through challenging people situations.

—Linda Lee Greene, January 2, 2019

http://booksbylindaleegreene.gallery-llgreene.com/

To date, Linda Lee Greene has authored five novels: “Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams” (http://amzn.to/VazHFG); “Guardians and Other Angels” (http://goo.gl/imUwKO); “Rooster Tale” (http://goo.gl/vNq32g); and “Cradle of the Serpent” (http://amzn.to/VazHFG), which was designated as a finalist in the 2018 American Fiction Awards Competition. It was also awarded a 5 Star Review by Readers’ Favorites. Scheduled for release in early 2019, her latest novel titled “A Chance at the Moon” will be available in soft cover and eBook at Amazon.com. An extensive exhibition of Greene’s artwork can be viewed at www.gallery-llgreene.com.