A very old ash tree was recently removed so that a road could be put it to access a new supermarket in my town. The ‘powers that be’ said it was dangerous to leave it as it obstructed the view of people pulling out onto the main road. There was absolute uproar in the town with people protesting. I can see the sense in it but I feel an affinity with all trees so it was a sad loss 💕
Sad that this tree could not last because people could not see as they drove. Alas, when we treat life and eldering of more-than-human others in this manner, it is only a matter of time before we treat humans, those judged in the way, similarly. Perhaps we are there.
This might sound silly, but there was a scene in the second Avatar movie (yes, bear with me :-)) where the whale-esque character was killed and the Na'vi who was bonded to her wept with such anguish. I felt that scene in my bones. It was a portrayal of what you describe. And those relationships we build with non-speaking beings (or at least the one's that don't speak like humans do), are real and complex and tender. Thank you for articulating this experience with such clarity!
Not silly at all. All 3 of these movies found me choking up and even weeping at times. In some ways, I think it is helpful when fiction is able to sensitize us to aspects of reality we have otherwise hardened ourselves to.
There was a weeping beech tree in the back yard next door that all us neighborhood kids would climb and swing from its branches. It was a gathering place and a hideaway. Eventually, a new owner cut it down. It was truly like losing a home, our safe place. Decades later I snuck back to the old lane. Lo and behold it grew back. Not as magnificent as it was from a child's eye, but heading toward it.
Grief is personal and it connects to what is meaningful.
Life has a way, and often this life is not connected to those who believe they "own" the lives of others. Thanks for sharing this inspiring story, Tara.
This beautifully articulates how scale matters in moral and emotional life. Relational attention creates an ethic that abstraction cannot sustain. I appreciate how this invites engagement rather than overwhelm.
Thank you for taking the time to share this; the overwhelm seems to come so easily, and it never, ever helps anything positively. I have been working on this idea for some time, and as I do not see many people talking about it, I have been grasping. I appreciate that my first way of articulating this has been helpful.
wow, this is so helpful. I used to think (subconsciously) that if I allowed myself to grieve the loss of a tree I would be overwhelmed, like it somehow adds up to a breaking point. So I’d distract myself, avoid, etc. Giving myself over to grieve the loss of a tree I’ve befriended allows the grief to move through me and I feel more resilient and present, connected to it all.
Thanks, Martha. I think about this mourning one tree as being tangible, and also allow me to perhaps take actions related to that one tree, and in my case, one loss. Bringing this down to the specific is helpful, where being overwhelmed by deforestation is so large and unwieldy, I find myself getting crushed even thinking about it, all without anything I can do, circling to more overwhelm.
A very old ash tree was recently removed so that a road could be put it to access a new supermarket in my town. The ‘powers that be’ said it was dangerous to leave it as it obstructed the view of people pulling out onto the main road. There was absolute uproar in the town with people protesting. I can see the sense in it but I feel an affinity with all trees so it was a sad loss 💕
Sad that this tree could not last because people could not see as they drove. Alas, when we treat life and eldering of more-than-human others in this manner, it is only a matter of time before we treat humans, those judged in the way, similarly. Perhaps we are there.
This might sound silly, but there was a scene in the second Avatar movie (yes, bear with me :-)) where the whale-esque character was killed and the Na'vi who was bonded to her wept with such anguish. I felt that scene in my bones. It was a portrayal of what you describe. And those relationships we build with non-speaking beings (or at least the one's that don't speak like humans do), are real and complex and tender. Thank you for articulating this experience with such clarity!
Not silly at all. All 3 of these movies found me choking up and even weeping at times. In some ways, I think it is helpful when fiction is able to sensitize us to aspects of reality we have otherwise hardened ourselves to.
There was a weeping beech tree in the back yard next door that all us neighborhood kids would climb and swing from its branches. It was a gathering place and a hideaway. Eventually, a new owner cut it down. It was truly like losing a home, our safe place. Decades later I snuck back to the old lane. Lo and behold it grew back. Not as magnificent as it was from a child's eye, but heading toward it.
Grief is personal and it connects to what is meaningful.
Life has a way, and often this life is not connected to those who believe they "own" the lives of others. Thanks for sharing this inspiring story, Tara.
This beautifully articulates how scale matters in moral and emotional life. Relational attention creates an ethic that abstraction cannot sustain. I appreciate how this invites engagement rather than overwhelm.
Thank you for taking the time to share this; the overwhelm seems to come so easily, and it never, ever helps anything positively. I have been working on this idea for some time, and as I do not see many people talking about it, I have been grasping. I appreciate that my first way of articulating this has been helpful.
wow, this is so helpful. I used to think (subconsciously) that if I allowed myself to grieve the loss of a tree I would be overwhelmed, like it somehow adds up to a breaking point. So I’d distract myself, avoid, etc. Giving myself over to grieve the loss of a tree I’ve befriended allows the grief to move through me and I feel more resilient and present, connected to it all.
Thanks, Martha. I think about this mourning one tree as being tangible, and also allow me to perhaps take actions related to that one tree, and in my case, one loss. Bringing this down to the specific is helpful, where being overwhelmed by deforestation is so large and unwieldy, I find myself getting crushed even thinking about it, all without anything I can do, circling to more overwhelm.