A couple of weeks ago, I went for a walk in the Cook County Forest Preserve near our home. It was a beautiful late winter day. Spring was in the air and my mind. The destiny of the snow from a recent light shower clinging to spots was to disappear amid sunshine and rising temperatures. The whole scene felt like Narnia as the clutches of the White Witch begin to weaken.
I was about to finish my walk when I noticed a bizarre tree. I don’t often walk this trail in winter while the ground cover plants are absent. As a result, I had never seen this particular tree’s unique trunk shape and form.
The base of the trunk has, what I can only describe as, arms or wings that curve gracefully to the ground. The rest of the tree reaching up towards the canopy is like every other tree. But, here at the bottom, it is like nothing I have ever seen.
I immediately asked, what caused this tree to grow like this? And then, because I am a nerd about things like this, was it Nature or Nurture that created this being?
I took some photos and made a plan to investigate further.
Using a plant identification app, I believe it is a Musclewood tree, also known as American Hornbeam. Both names seem appropriate, given that its trunk and branches look like both the muscles and tendons of a very fit person and horns or antlers of deer, elk, and other bedecked animals.
I learned that Musclewood is native to eastern US and Canada hardwood forests. It is also called Blue Beech, and it is a small, slow-growing understory tree.
In comparing my photos with images online, I see the basic structure and form of the musclewood tree entirely. However, none of them show the same wing-like trunk. As a result, I have formed a theory about how this tree grew.
I believe this tree’s formative years were within the decaying trunk of another tree. The remnant of the earlier tree provided a vessel, as it were, to shape the growth of the young tree. Once the decaying portions rotted away, the unusually shaped young tree was left.
If this is true, then this tree and its unique shape result from the way its innate biology and the environmental conditions it grew in combined. Nature and Nurture worked together to make something new and individual.
In my book, The 40 Day Hero’s Journey, the first five days of every journey explore the person at the beginning of their Hero’s journey. In Hollywood films and other story forms, this Beginning Stasis is the life the Hero is living before an event that forces the Hero to change.
Our personality at Beginning Stasis results from the unique combination of many different forces. First, our genetic composition is the starting point. How tall, what color eyes, any disease or condition? Billions of possible genetic combinations determine the nuts and bolts of who we become.
Then, we are thrust into this world to be molded by the people and experiences we encounter. Good or bad, it is impossible not to be affected by these forces.
Finally, we choose or don’t choose how these forces join together to make us the ‘who’ we are. Do I allow the memory of bullies from my childhood to shadow my decisions? Do paralympic athletes listen to naysayers and give up on their dream to compete? Does a simple tree germinated in an odd place give up the chance to grow tall and be a part of the forest?
There are two things I would be remiss not to mention at this point. The latter is not as significant as the first.
First, I am a hetero, white man. These three genetically determined dispositions make life easier for me than others. 1) my gender identification fits neatly within the norms of traditional American society. 2) I benefit from my skin color and the white privilege that goes with it. 3) as a man, I am afforded assumptions about my ability to lead and be successful. Therefore, I can not truly understand how difficult life is for people within the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, or women. Thankfully, the last several years have been an education for me as I learned of systemic homophobism, racism, and sexism ingrained in our society. I believe it is time to right the wrongs, undo the injustice, and move this country to a place of equality and understanding.
With that in mind, I hope that heroes from all communities come together and finally do what it takes to make an America where it is “self-evident, that all . . . are created equal.”
Second, I know a tree doesn’t have cognisant thought as we do. Perhaps the tree has an easier go of it, in that sense. But, sometimes, we don’t know we have a choice of path. It takes an outside force to make us see that we must ‘change’ to move forward. We must ‘change’ to leave the rut we are in. We must ’change’ so the Hero within can break free and take us to places we never thought possible.
That said, allow me to get back to my original thought. Every Hero in every story ever told begins with the indelible person they are in the sense that the building blocks of personality never go away. Yet, at the same time, we can intentionally edit, modify, and reprogram those building blocks to help us become unique and strong individuals and move forward on our journeys.
If I may give one piece of advice, imagine yourself a little tree seedling that puts all of its energy into growing upwards, regardless of the ground its roots are in.