How things grow and be gone...

Here in my part of the Great NorthWest, Mount Rainier (before was named so by someone in debt to someone named Rainier) erupted and spread rocks and mud upon the rocks and mud from its last eruption. It probably did more but I couldn't tell you from my yard, but I do know about the rocks and mud. So when someone planted a tree in my yard it has to allow for rocks and mud. The great tall firs and pines around have a similar challenge, growing tall enough to get the sunshine and roots enough to stand tall and get moisture (there isn't much moisture problem in Western Washington). Now with all that moisture and all those rocks the trees don't send roots deep into the ground looking for water and such, it is right there near the surface and that is the depth of their roots. It only becomes a problem when the great winds blow, since all that moisture is softening the ground, the wind blows and the tress topple - if there are a great forest of them they share and shear the wind's power and don't have to worry too much, but when developments and clear cuts happen the wind gets to them and one by one they go down. Happens everywhere in bad weather, solitary big old trees coming down in high winds.

I was cutting the stump of a red maple out of the front yard, wife had decided it wasn't in her comfort zone, so Earl has to remove it. It wasn't too difficult, just keep chopping with axe until all the roots are gone and then pull the stump, since it didn't have that deep running tap root. Feeling ready I finished it off today, will get some grass seed and seed the area over later.

As I cut the roots away, I kept thinking that America is just like that lovely Japanese Maple that was there. Beautiful, decorative and oddly non-functional would be words that relate to both. And when I think of how shallow the roots of our citizens raised on television education and promises for change and hope - I think that great winds are going to topple so many of them, consider how normal we think living with drugs, auto thefts of Hondas, and copper cable thefts. There weren't that many petty criminals during the Great Depression, were there? Maybe one has to be raised in adversity to build a stronger core, deeper roots and stronger values. How shallow are Americans? Well, the ones covered by media seem to be very shallow. Drive in another telephone pole and some steel cabling to hold that old tree of Liberty up?