SPEAKING FOR THE TREES

‘Tis officially the season of your weekends being booked, whizzing gifts around the globe via planes, trains, and automobiles, and trying out new recipes with the optimistic hope that they’ll turn out as good as they look in the pictures (but usually resulting in a pile of mostly edible mush… or maybe that’s just me?). 

‘Tis also the season (depending on your denomination of choice) for making the annual pilgrimage to the dustiest, darkest corners of the attic or basement, pushing past the now-defunct boxes of Halloween horrors and turkey-themed pumpkin accessories that recently decorated your mantel and yard–all to retrieve the ultimate prize. That prize, of course, is the Gordian knot of string lights and a flimsy, oxymoronic plastic tree.

At the center of this metaphor for our capitalistic relationship with nature, yet still wholesome ritual, lies the heart of what we’re talking about today: trees. Trees can be grand, majestic pillars into the sky. Trees can also be gnarled, knotty, survivors clinging onto the most unlikely patches of soil. Most topically, trees can often blend into the backgrounds of our lives if we don’t take the time to look.

Things You Didn’t Notice

LOOK UP, DOWN, ALL AROUND

As we grow ever older, odd new hobbies have a tendency to latch on. For me, this hobby would be the noble art of tree identification. Now I find myself looking at trees more often than the average person. Who knew how much fun a hike could be when you have the thrill of exclaiming, “White Pine!” or “Tulip Poplar!” and tripping over the roots you were absolutely not looking at every few meters?

Let’s first talk about the oft-overlooked yet ever-reliable trunk. Nothing interesting about a big lump of wood, right? WRONG. Like, did you know that even on living trees, the trunk is mostly dead? Only the outermost part of the trunk is alive, and it acts like a highway system for the sugars and water to run from the leaves to the roots and back again.

The downside of my newfound observation of these trunks is that I’ve been receiving a lot of unsolicited messages. Sometimes, they’re declarations of love to a random stranger; other times, they may be an irrelevant string of numbers or dates. Regardless of what they say, they are annoyingly permanent as they are carved directly into tree trunks. I don’t know who would do this, but anyone who carves their and their lover’s initials in a tree truck effectively is slicing open the artery of the tree. This allows bacteria or pathogens to enter straight into the ~blood stream~ of the tree. While it might not immediately kill the tree, carving takes a toll on its life span and could shorten it by 10, 100, or 1,000 years.

The oldest tree on record is a Bristlecone Pine Tree at ~5,000 years old (*gasp*). I know. Crazy right? That makes our puny 73.5-year average lifespan (which is only 1.5% of the Bristlecone Pine tree’s lifespan) look silly. For reference, writing was developed ~5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, so this single tree was alive for all of humanity's recorded history.

Now we can talk about leaves (but for real, how come leaves get all the glory?). Why would it ever make sense for a tree just to drop its leaves in the winter when there are evergreen trees that do not? The answer is that deciduous tree leaves are much like beach resort staff. They stop working in the slow season so the business (the tree) stays afloat. If these trees kept their water-filled leaves in the winter, they would freeze and die anyway. So they cut them off.

But before they do that, they often turn pretty colors! This occurs when the chlorophyll (the green pigment in the water-loving powerhouse chloroplast cells) breaks down and reveals the orange and yellow carotenoids and other pigments. In particularly dry and sunny weather, as the winter cold hits, trees might produce anthocyanins, a bright red pigment. These red pigments act as sunscreen to protect the leaves while whatever energy and yummy macromolecules are left in them get sucked back into the tree to store in a safer place for winter (their roots, the underground foundation that may be as big as the canopy of the tree).

Next time you look at a tree, recognize how the whole tree is connected, and imagine how long it could live and has lived so far. Plant a tree if you can. After all, it has a good chance of being enjoyed for generations.

Cool Sips

• Household: From the Black Friday battlegrounds to the hopeful Christmas list, the latest Apple product seems to have maintained an annual stranglehold on the holiday season. This year, Apple released its first-ever carbon-neutral products and a snazzy video featuring Mother Earth. While I am a sucker for listening to Mother Earth, this announcement gives us reason to be both excited and skeptical.

• Transportation: Americans hate traffic circles. But why do we like their alternative–traffic lights (emphasis on traffic)–so much when they are significantly more dangerous, don’t work during power outages, and make us stop and wait in the middle of the night when there are no other cars on the road? Learn about all the benefits of traffic circles here, so you can point out every stop light that could have been a traffic circle… just like me.

• Health: Why are you spending money to drive to a power-guzzling gym when you could just be taking the stairs? (I’m looking at you, elevator-riding gym goers.) Sure, those office or apartment stairs are dusty and do smell like old paint, so here are some of the most beautiful staircases in the world to imagine when you're in that dimly lit stairwell. I promise the more you do it, the less sweaty you get every time.

• Mentality: Check in on your friends, friends. In the age of social anxiety, not wanting to make the first call, or saying too much time has passed, “nourishing social relationships have a profound effect on our physical and mental health.” To help, here are some topics and pointers to rehearse in your mirror.

Mouthwatering

PICKLE & CHICKPEA FUSION

This recipe took us by surprise. It is tasty and filling since it is packed with all the makings of a protein-y salad but with the zest of mustard and dill. I am not going to admit outright that I have eaten this for every meal of the day… but I’m not going to deny it either.

foodforgoodnesssake

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Ingredients:

• 3 cans of chickpeas

• 2 cups of diced cucumber

• 1 ¾ cups diced celery

• 1 ½ cups of diced dill pickles

• ½ cup red onion thinly sliced

• ¼ cup fresh chopped dill

Dressing

• ½ cup tahini

• ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt

• 3 tbsp lemon juice

• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

• 5 tbsp pickle juice

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp garlic

We Out Here

THE TREE PEOPLE

Who could have guessed that my need for a washing machine would lead me to meet the tree people in a strip mall laundromat? Not me. 

On this particular day of living on the road, my partner Jesse and I were in dire need of some clean clothes. We stopped at an underwhelming laundromat in the North Lake Tahoe region, where we were not the only ones preparing to clean clothes. 

Sometimes our daily hustle and household commodities (washing machines) enable us to be more productive, but sometimes our desire for immediate gratification makes us miss the little joys in life. I was craving some human interaction, having been cooped up for a while, so I decided to chat with a couple of laundry-doing folks who were playing with a puppy in the front of the shop. What’s more delightful than intrapersonal connection and a puppy? 

Turns out, it was not a puppy. The dog sitting on the man’s lap was rather an ancient chihuahua by the name of Stella. The man holding Stella introduced himself as Xavi… or at least that is what his friends call him. Xavi was not his government name. We don’t say his government name. (I can’t tell you why, but I think it's because we don’t trust the government). 

Xavi was sitting scratching Stella's head while two others were doing laundry, one in a washer and one in the sink. We got to talking, and he said that he couldn’t find work because his knees were bad, he couldn’t stand for long periods of time, and he certainly couldn’t afford to do anything to fix them. But he was excited for Daniel because he was getting ready for an exciting job interview and needed clean clothes (Daniel, just within earshot, blushed when Xavi said this). It was hard to get jobs for Xavi and Daniel, and the rest of the tree people. 

I wasn’t sure I heard right. “Who are the tree people?” I asked Xavi, imagining a combination of a modern American cult and the Ewok community from Star Wars. Xavi explained that they were, of course, his people—his community, a tight-knit houseless community around North Lake Tahoe, the people who lived with the trees.

Though he was born on a bus and never really lived in the same place for long, Xavi found a home with the trees, and with the stray animals they found along the way. The tree people had many pets and loved them deeply despite others assuming that they’d be better off without animal companions. Stella was Xavi’s best friend, beating out Daniel, who was putting his clothes in the dryer now, for the top spot. She had kept him going through over 10 years of houselessness and debilitating knee problems.

“How can you care for a dog when you can hardly care for yourself?” people would ask. But Xavi’s eyes lit up when talking about Stella. Caring for her gave him a sense of purpose, he recounted, and he would not be alive without her companionship. 

“She has a much better life with me than those pets left home alone all the time while their people are off working,” Xavi explained. “We explore and are outdoors all of the time. Look how much attention I give her. She loves my affection.” He scratched her chin. I swear Stella smiled.

I couldn’t help but think of how much time the average person spends at work, and how so many could easily spend their whole life not knowing about the tree people, or really any houseless population. Much like trees themselves, Xavi is invisible to so many people who walk right by, consumed with their own business. But why do we tend toward solely acknowledging those people who can do something for us? Those whose professions are of service to us? We tend to notice trees that are fruiting. But that doesn't mean only fruiting trees are important.

Xavi was full of life. Full of joy. As we were chatting, Xavi asked if I wanted to play a game. I am physically unable to refuse the opportunity to play a game, so I said yes. We spent the rest of the laundry time listing off a band or musician for each alphabet letter, and of course, Xavi was in charge, so he would say which one was the best—the winner of the round. He laughed at my apparently limited awareness of classic rock bands, and I was surprised to find he knew exactly who Olivia Rodrigo was. I learned that he had a soft spot for rock music, his favorite band was Boston, and he once taught a college seminar about living with no home, which sparked a love for teaching that he wished he could act on more often. As we played, he invited Daniel and a few other tree people to join and we found ourselves taking over the sleepy strip mall laundromat and making jokes about each other’s music tastes.

Our laundry finished, and as we were saying goodbye to Xavi, Daniel, and Stella, Xavi looked at me and said, “It was really nice to talk to you. You know, most people never ask us how we are doing. There are nurses that come sometimes to check up on us, but other than that, people might give us something, but they never stick around. They never have a conversation. Sometimes, all I want to do is talk to someone, like a regular person.”

Sometimes, it is really nice to just talk with someone. It may be that in doing so, we discover there is so much more humanity lying just beyond our siloed lives.

Game Time

HANABI

This is a game of collaboration. So rather than systematically crushing grandma’s spirits through cutthroat capitalism and ruthless back-alley dealings in a “fun” game of Monopoly, you can all celebrate your victory or mourn your defeat together. The game is much like solitaire, but throw in a splash of bomb defusing-like tensions, and you get the jist. The challenge is completing the game using limited communication and your group's intuition.

The rules are easy to pick up but there is much room to improve and strategize.

Here is a run-through: