The Continued Deforestation of America

Give a Gift of A Spark of Heavenly Fi... Grief: The Great Learning, Day 423

The Continued Deforestation of America

I��ve been sorting through files that belonged to Jeff, my life mate/soul mate, files that I couldn��t sort through right after he died. It felt voyeuristic then, and it feels voyeuristic now because the pictures, notes, cartoons a person saves tells a lot about that person, more maybe than they would want anyone to know. Still, I didn��t want to throw out that particular file without going through it just in case there was something I might need. (Though how I could need something I��d never seen before, I couldn��t tell you.)

I��m glad I did. I came across the photos posted below, photos��that took my breath away. I remember reading stories in grade school history and reading classes about settlers, and��the stories always seemed to begin or end with the hardy souls cutting down trees and clearing the land. This legend was so ingrained, it wasn��t until my twenties I realized the truth. What????? They cut down trees for farmland????? Trillions and trillions of trees — for what? The American dream of owning a piece of land? The insanity of it all is . . . well, insane. Yes, I know — persecutions in Europe, religious and political freedom, etc, etc, etc, but unconscionable for all that.

Coincidentally, I recently wrote a piece about how wilderness areas are being called irrelevant now, but I guess the truth is, wilderness areas have always been irrelevant to this country. Once people had cut down all the eastern trees, they set out to tame the west. And here we are today — tamed into submission. Is it any wonder I am committed to finding the wildness within?

Jeff and I planted hundreds of trees. I have a hunch most of them have been cut down by now, but still, we did our part to reforest America. And that is something to be proud about.