The Tree Party

I had a little chat with Mr. Tree the other day. Mr. Tree is a large tree near a river in my city and he invited me over when I was looking for a place to sit down and play with my baby daughter. I was sitting down nearby, and the phrase "your place is right over here" popped into my mind, and there was this really powerful looking tree, like he was bursting with zest.

So I sat down and let the baby play with some of Mr. Tree's leaves that he had shed, admired him, and blessed him, and asked him what he's got going on.

He told me that democracy isn't doing well in the world. I was surprised- I didn't know trees cared very much either way for human politics, or were particularly informed about them.

It's not a coincidence Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest, he went on. Democracy comes from trees. It's always the forest folk who are free. Kings and commoners would come to listen to the trees, and eventually they would notice that there is no king of the trees. Mountain folk too, to some extent, but less so, because rocks feel free no matter what.

I let that sink in. Mr. Tree told me that not only do trees care very much about human affairs, he told me that it was his species who were responsible for introducing egalitarian ideas into our society.

Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. On a feeling level, this makes a whole lot of sense. Wasn't the magna carta pushed through at the same time as a ruling to allow commoners access to the forest? And everywhere you go, would-be tyrants are trying to keep people out. And somehow, would-be tyrants are always finding reasons to cut down trees, and the egalitarians are always finding ways to save them. It would appear this goes way beyond exploiting nature for profit. Killing the trees is the point, lest they make us free.

Mr. Tree further recommended to me to create a political party called the Tree Party, the party of the people who listen to trees. Let's do it.