Trees We Need

My kids call this the hundred-acre-woods tree. Some just say "let's meet at the tree in the park," and it's understood that the rendez-vous will take place under this carob even though the park has many other species. But none others so revered. See how it's branches are crutched up like an old veteran's broken bones. So far, I've found two other trees propped like this, an attempt to keep them alive beyond their years. The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest under whose canopy Robin Hood and Maid Marian courted and the long-dead oak in Rome where poet Torquato Tasso sat in the shade and waited for papal recognition for his genius. He died in 1595 still waiting. Now the dead tree shackled up with metal bands waits for him.

Trees like these matter beyond reason and beauty.