A friend who's been enthusing about an Instagram account called JewsLoveTrees exitedly informed me that its host had started a podcast, so I gave it a listen. The inaugural episode argues for better and worse "anthropomorphosis" when it comes to trees. The bad kind likens bark to skin, etc. The good kind sees the English oak, for instance, not just as "strong" but, when you know more about its ecological and cultural history, as a
brilliant brash sensitive warrior type with an illustrious family who is also super dependable - kinda like Robin Hood. The giant sequioa, by contrast, is a
patient warm and cozy survivor, huge but a tad lazy, sort of like the characters played by Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. I'll have to listen a bit more before I'm persuaded... But I was charmed by the prayer he's promised to append to each episode, brought to a tree with water:
In the company of trees I feel whole.
In the company of trees I feel home.
With trees I am tinglier.
With trees I am minglier.
I raise my cup of water and pour it at your roots,
So you can drink your health all the way out through your shoots.
May you grow your fill,
And teach me to grow mine.
