Trees in Bar Harbor
And why are we forgetting about the word we
Sometimes the world seems to slant impossibly and everything you do seems like a battle just to get your footing—let alone equal footing.
Here's the thing: you can be upright when everyone else slants.
You can stay strong and move forward even when you have moments (days, weeks, months) where you think you can't. You can reach for the sky even when the landscape is crowded.
The trees do it. So can you.
And this can be hard to remember sometimes when putting your opinion out there can make people hate on you, when people are so very into “us vs them” that they completely forget that there’s a word called “we.”
But there is a word called we.
Trees get that.
Humans need to get back to that, too.
This week I went to a meeting and a man told me that he’d lost hope.
I love this man so much. I often wish he was my dad though he’s probably not old enough. Do I agree with every single thing he says or believes? Of course not. Do I still respect and adore him? Of course I do.
My heart broke for him after that meeting. He told me that he’d lost hope in our community. And you could see this just in the way he stood. His shoulders slouched forward. He slumped. This great human being who has lived here for decades, who has created things, had lost hope.
That? That breaks my heart.
A cool woman I know who is often on opposite sides of the issues that he stands for in local politics told me a month ago that she felt all her hard work was just for nothing. For nothing.
“Your hard work,” I told her, “may feel like nothing. But it inspires other people to try, too. They see you and know that things are possible.”
Do I agree with everything that cool woman does or says? Of course not, but I am amazed by her and love her.
Another cool woman had an incredibly well written post about a topic that’s hot and heavy and divisive. She took the link to it down. Did I agree with every single nuance of every single thing she said? Of course not, I never ever agree with everything everyone writes or says (I am a bit weird like this), but it was smart and passionate and important. It gave her a voice as she tried to give others a voice.
It’s obviously not just Bar Harbor. It’s the country. It’s bits of the world.
Here’s the thing: I don’t have to agree with every single thing in a discussion or a post or a comment to still respect and love people or to just appreciate that they put themselves out there for something that they believe in.
That’s the real thing: you don’t have to agree with everything everyone says all the time.
But disagreement? It shouldn’t make us forget the word we.
Disagreement? It shouldn’t make us become so divided that people lose hope.
Disagreement? It shouldn’t make us take posts down or feel unsafe to talk about local politics.
Disagreement? It should actually make us work together to make better solutions.
Trees.
They get their nutrients from both the sun and the ground. Below the surface of things, gigantic root systems will branch out and entangle. An oak will chill right next to a maple, right next to a pine.
Do they care that they are different?
No.
They are all still trees.
And us?
We’re all still human beings.
I don’t know much about Bar Harbor but this hit the spot this morning.
Trees love and support each other, so should we. Birch trees live in pairs or groups, never alone - they share a root system. "As the [birch] tree grows, the roots spread along with it. The birch tree roots collide together and make a mat of 4 to 8 inches thick and spread throughout the ground area of 40 feet." -Leafy Journal The tall white pines that snapped off during the latest storms were usually standing alone. Those pines that were standing together supported each other through strong root systems and intertwined arms/limbs. I love my 1/1000th of the 100 acre woods out back of the house.