desert pine tree

What is it take to think?

I have been staying at this place several weeks now and almost daily I water the two pine trees. I also water a few other trees that cling to life. It’s not trivial to water them, as I have to bring the water to these trees in containers. There is no running water here. There are also dead trees here. The dead trees are depressing and I want to cut them down, they are not a happy thing. . . the dead trees are not full of joy or bright colors.
The two pine trees, they are a beauty of patterns. One of the pine trees leans at a 45 degree angle, blown from the desert wind. They call it the “lancaster lean” because of the wind here and in Lancaster city. A ordinary tree, only up close it is a marvel of nature. Today I trimmed the pine trees. I could easily smell the pine smell as my saw tore into the half dead branches. The trees, they look much better now. The tree looks nice from a distance as well. To me it seemed to be dying when I first saw this tree. Many dead branches.
I can not see any difference in the tree from me watering it. This is the desert and there is zero water for the trees, here in the summer. You have to dig 160 feet down to get the ground water. I have noticed the trees are not getting worse. This is a good thing. So I hope my efforts succeed in keeping them alive. I guess they are about 40 to 80 years old, the largest anyway. The tree, probable older than me and I’m glad I do my part to keep them alive. Tonight I looked at the stars and the tree, and I was captured by the scene and the thought that the tree is just another living thing, and me and it are not much different. We both have DNA, we both have cells and we both are here in the desert trying to survive. We share a link but it’s weak and its easy to discount. A tree is not a person, it’s not even an animal. How can one say that we are or can relate to a tree?

Does the tree think?

The stars filled the sky and the tree stood fast, putting its silhouette into the night. Alive and strong, it won’t be going anywhere. I water it with five gallon water containers, or an eight gallon depending on the random order I am doing things and what water I pull out of my car first. I have a shallow pit around the tree and I have it covered with straw. . .a minor barrier to help keep the ground moist, which in turn hopefully keeps the roots moist and functioning. Yesteday when I watered the tree a lizard ran out of the ditch, he had found a nice wet spot with shade. The lizard will remember that place and come back? I don’t know. I am for certain – partial memories appear for me, just like they did this morning. A memory of someone saying something to me, but I can’t place exactly who that was in the last few weeks that said it. My brain capacity is much wider than the lizard, yet I have fragmented memories of things that happened recently! Perhaps the lizard will remember this place, but like me, have a fragment of memory lost that is key,. The key memory that brings the story together so the lizard can know how to get back there. And in the desert sun, the lizard sits and watches the surroundings, and just like me, has short memories that pass through his brain that are not all that useful. That is a guess, but my memory issues are real and absolute. How the lizard thinks will be a mystery. For me, never solved or fully understood.

The lizard does think.

I know the tree doesn’t think nor appreciate things like animals do. Or do I know that for certain? Is there more to the cellular activity in the plant than we know, signalling activity that perhaps has a memory? Another mystery. Only after caring for something for a long period of time do you feel for it. I didn’t feel much for these trees at first. Now I do feel for them. I feel that if I leave here, I want to come back someday and see these trees. See if they made it and are still growing. Why do I care? I don’t know. I don’t know why I water them either. But I do. The tree gives me a connection to something, a connection just like a human friend.
I think about the stars above the tree. Some of the stars move, man made. Other stars are not stars but galaxies. Tonight the dirt and heat of the desert made me anxious. A bit of disgust from the heat, but some water to cool myself down, and a look at the stars, that was all I needed. The stars here are amazing. My anxiety drains and I my heart calms as I look at the random stars. The sky has always made me feel peace and calm my worries. I get a feeling of power and timelessness that blasts my small problems and timelines like a bulldozer hitting a ant mount. Stress of the day becomes less important as I gaze at the stars. Dots of light like pebbles on a beach. Randomly placed and gratefult for the time as it passes? Who knows. The Milky Way makes and appearance here, unlike my home near the city where you can never see the Milky Way. Here in the desert, the milky way gives some hints to its size and is sometimes seen as a belt of starts. And other dots that look like stars are man made geostationary satellites.

I worked at a aerospace company and had the chance to talk to actual rocket scientists. One man, his name was Mark Diprinzio, he told me those large geo-stationary satellites will take thousands of years to deorbit and crash into Earth. Perhaps 10 of thousands of years! They are so large and in such a high orbit, the satellites are stuck there just like the moon is stuck above us, slowly rotating about the planet as a partner with the Earth. This guy told me these things like it was elementary math to him. I remember his name because somehow we made each other laugh, and I occasionally helped them do their work. A connection was made and twenty years later I still remember Marks name.

The man thinks.

In the sky, these satellites, to me they are one of the best markers man has made that we were here. The spacecraft, these are immune to weathering, flooding or any of the foul transformation that happens to things on the surface of planet earth. If humans disappear in the next hundred years, those satellites will still be up floating above Earth. And here in the desert? This tree or its relatives will still be on the planet somewhere? It seems trees like this, they have lived through every mega extinction. This tree makes me think of mother earth, the ancient Earth much older than modern humans. And it makes me think of my age, middle age for a human. I try to be positive, I’m not middle aged, like this tree, I am a baby, a learned person who is now ready to conquer the world with little fear. With my gray hairs, I will go. A old bible verse applies here. “also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.” I often feel that way, that I have put much of my strength into life already. But it’s really not the case. There are years and years left. Just like this pine tree, given proper care and feeding.

Does the tree think?

As I look at the tree in the night sky, I have a moment of awe, a moment of reflection on the planet we call home. I have connected with this tree, and the tree, perhaps it connected with me? I cry a tear for what happens here, for my connection to this tree. A tear for me as well, as I feel mortal and question my time on Earth for me, as I age. And the years for this tree? That this tree will continue on. And that it may outlive me and see many beautiful days in this desert of California.

Does the cosmos think?