The Bridge #114
in which we become the trees (or a forest, whatever)
Hello
& Welcome ! The Bridge is a newsletter connecting the professional and the personal creatively across cultures and a diversity of topics, until we are not only full of ideas but also ready to take action. Thanks for joining in the conversation.
I seek to make of my life a forest — with a diversity of things growing, many symbiotic relationships, and complementary activities. May my life become like a healthy ecosystem, and rather than refining a machine-like focus may I cultivate an expansive wonder about all that is happening around me.
As trees lose their leaves in preparation for winter, so I want to be always ready to let fall some long term commitments during certain seasons -- which I can take up again, when the seasons are more favorable. And, as it is for forests in springtime, may I be ready to sprout new growth everywhere, when the time is right.
Something to Read
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
This is a modern fable written almost one hundred years ago. The narrator (maybe based on the author himself, as he lived in the same region of France where the story takes place) describes an encounter with an older man, a solitary man, who has taken on a project of planting trees.
The older man shows such dedication to planting trees that over 30 years an area that was rather desolate and near-desert-like becomes not only greener but better watered and more habitable for humans and other animals as well.
The story was written in French and published in many languages, with zero royalties going to the author himself. Jean Giono was himself a pacifist and a lover of the local. He published many books in his lifetime, but this one is perhaps the one he is best known for.
Something to Consider
Wangarĩ Maathai grew up around the time that Jean Giono was writing (the 1940s/early 1950s).
She was born on April 1st in the central highlands of Kenya, and though she faced many obstacles in her life (for being a woman, for being an African, for being an advocate for democracy, for not being a person who could be easily quieted) — Wangarĩ Maathai lived long enough to win a position in the Kenyan government and subsequently won the Nobel Peace Prize, the first-ever environmentalist and the first-ever African woman to win this prestigious award.
Maathai was the first East African woman to earn a PhD, and she did it while raising two young children. At a certain point, her husband divorced her because she was too strong-minded and he “couldn’t control her.” At another point, the Kenyan president was so opposed to her projects he tried to have her killed. She was arrested many times, and she several times faced financial difficulties. Yet, she remained dedicated to building the Green Belt Movement, which she founded at the age of 37.
The Green Belt Movement was not only about planting trees, though that was a very important function of the movement. It was also about women’s empowerment and the strengthening of democracy. Without having a singular focus, the movement became more powerful because it addressed intersecting problems with an all-encompassing solution.
🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲
Something to Hear
Colossus of Roads by Hurray for the Riff Raff
Alynda Segarra — born on the opposite side of the world from the two others I mention above, they left home in the Puerto-Rican Bronx for a solitary life in Philadelphia, then New Orleans, and now at 36 they’ve adventured to such an extent, there are novels to be written that are boiled down into folk/punk songs that hit you in the gut with some of the rhythms and set your mind spinning with poetry.
Hurray for the Riff Raff goes on tour this spring opening for Bright Eyes. Protest songs for the win! This song though is one I like because it talks about love, love as resistance:
Hold my head like a live wire /
Duck quick now, I hear gunfire /
Caught somewhere in the space between /
Do you love me and do you love me? /
Everything is advancing /
I love to see you out dancing /
There's women up in the mountains /
We could be up there if we could get up there…
Something to Practice
If you’re tired, get some rest.
If you want to plant trees, plant trees.
If you want to live out a non-linear career with just the right number of friends and an adventurous life, remember we only live once. You too can be a forest, if you want to.
🌲 JPC 🌳