31 May 2011

The Tree

- I'm so sad, so sad I could die!
- You too! How come? Is it because you're old, and sad at the very thought that you'll die soon?
- Quiet the opposite: I welcome death, I do.
- Are you tired of life then?
- You bet I am! What other reason could there be? It's been a few centuries now, here I am rooted to the same spot of land, condemned to view the same old same old - that hilltop to the left, that flat stretch of land on the right, and that senseless, empty sea straight ahead of me. What have I done wrong to merit such punishment!
- Poor tree - I said - What do you need to be happy?
- To not be a tree! To be, for example, a human, like you. To be able to move, settle some place else, to see and learn new things - If only you knew when dusk falls around me, how I envy you.
During the pensive silence the Tree adds - But didn't you say you were also sad?