Respecting Our Landlords.

I was reading something recently which said that if we in a temperate country like Britain stopped farming, the majority of the landscape would be covered with trees again in just a few decades.

And then I was thinking…

I’m neither a biologist nor a botanist, but I gather that if all the trees on the planet disappeared, the planet would become uninhabitable very quickly. If all the humans disappeared, however, it wouldn’t make a jot of difference. It seems the planet needs trees, but it has no use at all for humans.

And then I was further thinking… (Whilst regarding the two magnificent sycamores at the bottom of my garden with a modest amount of reverence)

Trees live a lot longer than people. Those two sycamores were in place long before I was born, and they’ll still be there – all other things being equal – long after I’ve shuffled off.

All of which musing led me to a view of things in which the human being is a somewhat transient little creature which takes up a relatively short lived existence in the trees’ world. It seems the tree is the primary being in this world, not the human.

Now, I realise that there might be a bit more to it than that. There might, for example, be a spiritual element to be considered. Nevertheless, given the simple facts stated above, I really think we should show the noble tree rather more respect than we generally do.