Things are often more than what meets the eye.
It is January in Seattle. I was on a walk through a wooded area I frequent. Seeing the oaks starting to show signs of Spring, it got me thinking about tree rings. In most literary works, tree rings are typically seen as a symbol of growth. It is intuitive enough to rationalize: a new ring appears following each year of a tree’s growth. Tree rings are not mere symbols of growth, they are signs of rests and retreats.
A deciduous tree sheds its leaves in the Fall, photosynthesis stops, growth grinds to a halt. No more organic material is assimilated until Spring. When growth does resume, new material layers on top of last year growth — voilà, a new ring is formed!
Things are a bit different for an evergreen tree. The spruce outside my window grows year round. Growing slower in the Winter, the fiber is denser, darker, and thinner. The alternating growth speeds manifest themselves as a different pattern of tree rings.
Be it deciduous or evergreen, a tree grows at the same rate all the time will form no tree ring at all. The very symbol of persistence and growth comes from deliberate pullbacks and resets. A deciduous rests while an evergreen retreats. What should we do?
Jan 28, 2023, Seattle