If you look at news these days (and I don’t blame you if you don’t) you would see that two suspects, aged 16 and 60 were arrested for the deliberate chopping down of a symbolic tree in England. The Sycamore Gap Tree, as it was called, was a 300-year-old tree that stood next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. It was in a Kevin Costner movie, (which was the first act of vandalism against it I argue) and became a celebrity in its own right.
Like other trees that get “too big for their roots” i.e. the Joseph of Arimathea Tree in Glastonbury, England, the Joshua Trees in California, the Moorabool Trees in Australia, the Japanese Cherry Blossom Trees in San Francisco and even the indirect torching of the banyan tree in Lahaina, Hawaii, there seems to be a breed of people who like to hurt and destroy trees.
But why?
One has to look at the tree to see the forest, it seems when it comes to such people.
All of these trees had significance, either culturally, ecologically or emotionally for the majority of people. The majority of the people who enjoyed these trees love them for what they represent: permanence in a time of chaos, beauty in a time of ugliness, green stability in an era of man-made climate instability and even the love of God for humanity.
People imbue these trees with this status. Obviously, the trees cannot. But when such a tree becomes such a symbol, just like the sacred oaks in Isengard, all it takes is one bad apple to bring on the orcs.
People kill trees to symbolically harm other people. Such people hate anything that makes them not feel more special than others. So, they attack the symbolic.
That scruffy pine tree on an abandoned lot will get nary a notice. But have it mentioned that it is the 2023 Charlie Brown Christmas Tree nominee and surely some ass will come to haul it down.
The people who rip down the trees in Joshua Tree National Park and the park in Australia deliberately go after the others who will want to enjoy such trees. In many ways, such vandals are cowards. They act in the dead of night; they lash out when they feel they can get away with the deed of destruction. And they revel in the destruction they have caused. But faced with justice, these cowards always cower. And justice eventually gets served.
Other cowards vandalize other things imbued with the same traits we give our beloved trees.
Religious buildings, institutions and even our democratic principles are open to such vandals. They are the minority acting against the majority due to an over-inflated sense of self with an equal self-loathing. Like Saruman the Wizard, they decide to act in the interest of self, even at the destruction of oneself, as they believe they act in their best interest.
And so, we are then faced with the results of such acts. The majority is enraged and saddened at first, then comes the calls for justice. Hopefully justice is served, but still the damage has been done.
But equally inspirational is the majority deciding to make something symbolic of such destruction. To regrow the Sycamore Gap Tree, to replant the Japanese Cherry Trees, to protect the Joshua Trees. We become more vigilant, more resolute in the guarding and love of these important symbols. And even our beloved democracy, so battered and bruised and chopped at, can still grow taller, more resolute and stronger if we stand together to protect it.
The cowards can always desecrate a symbol, but they cannot kill the symbolism behind it. That’s our decision to make.
Martin's other blog can be read here.