Taking A Breather...

Friends and Readers - I gave a concert earlier tonight and, in tandem with only a few hours of sleep, am quite weary. I won't try to put together a review tonight, but will be back tomorrow evening. I'll try to catch up and be up to speed by next week as we enter the final two weeks of this year's Lenten Review. In any case, I don't want to leave you in the dark, so here's one of two short stories I read at my concert. Enjoy.

The Parable of Two Trees
- A Lesson in Contentment and Trust -

On the top of a hill deep in the forest lived two trees. They were both beautiful and strong and could see the entire valley below them. One day the valley began to tremble with the rumble of trucks and the sky was filled with the sound of saws and the stench of smoke. The trees watched as the borders of the forest slowly gave way to the lumberjacks and their work which continued both day and night. In the early hours of an exceptionally noisy morning one of the trees leaned toward the other and asked,

“Where do you think they take all of our brother and sister trees once they are cut down?” The other tree responded, “I do not know where they go, but I know that they become many things for the use of those who walk upright upon the Earth.”

“What types of things?” asked the curious tree, for he was not very knowledgeable in the ways of human living. “Anything that can be made from the wood within us, of course. Some are made into beams of lumber which are used to build houses. Others become furniture to go into homes. The rarest and most beautiful trees of the forest may even be expertly carved to become musical instruments. The possibilities are without end, my friend.” What excitement this brought to the mind of the curious tree. He began to envision himself living on in the form of a beautiful table at which families would eat and laugh for generations. Or to become an instrument placed in the hands of a master musician! His desires and dreams became so strong that each day he stretched himself higher and higher into the sky, digging his roots deeper and deeper into the Earth; that the quality and value of his body may increase. Eventually he grew so high that he towered over the tree beside him, and he loved it. He could see so much more of the world. He did not understand, however, that so much more of the world could see him as well.

The harvesting of trees in the valley was complete and a surveyor walked up a steep path to the top of a beautiful hill overlooking the barren valley below. He came into a clearing where there stood two magnificent cedar trees. One was perfect for harvesting and the other was a sight the surveyor had never seen. It was so tall and wide he knew it would have enough wood within its trunk to produce a volume of lumber never before harvested from a single tree. In his excitement he called a team of lumberjacks to the hill and they began cutting at once. They cut down the shorter of the two trees first and marveled at what they found. The wood within its trunk was exquisite and beautiful. It showed signs of perfect aging and health. There was not an imperfection to be found. The surveyor ordered that it be put on a truck and sent away at once for custom cutting. The crew stood around the second tree and sharpened the teeth upon their heavy saws. The tree shook with delight for its hour had arrived! As the first saw bit into its base it trembled but held fast. Two more saws cut into it and before long the great cedar began its slow topple toward the Earth. But the weight of the tree was too great, it’s falling speed too fast, and when it hit the ground it broke into five splintered and fragmented pieces. The crew gathered around the wreckage and found that the core of the tree was hollow, rotted out by insects that had crawled into cracks in the trunk. The cracks had been caused, they suspected, by unnaturally accelerated growth. The tree was of no use and was sent away in a dump truck to be turned into mulch.

It was not long after the harvest of the two trees that a young man sat on his front porch and plucked the strings of a prize acoustic guitar made from elite cuts of cedar. Much to the young man’s delight, the wood of his guitar had been harvested in a forest not far from where he lived. The rumble of a truck coming down the road caused the young man to stop playing. He stood up, leaned his guitar carefully against the side of a bench, and walked out into his driveway where he met a dump truck making a delivery from a local gardening supply store. A great pile of fresh mulch was dumped into the middle of the man’s driveway. The truck driver immediately sprayed the pile with pesticide as it was thought to contain bugs due to rot in the wood. The young man and the driver went inside for a drink. As they were away, a broken voice came from the pile of cedar mulch. “My friend, you have become what I have always dreamed of being. Now I am nothing, and will be spread out upon the Earth to dry up and die. How did I ever become so foolish?” A sweet and resolute voice came forth from the guitar. “You had no patience. You rushed so far ahead and lost everything that made you special. If only you had found contentment in being a tree on the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful forest.” “That I had,” said the pile of mulch, already dry in the midday sun, “that I had.”

E.D. Thompson
October 5, 2008


See you tomorrow - E.T.