Hello, humans! This is a post about a tree that I photographed a few months ago, and about The Wishtree, a book my class has started reading in LA.
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So, first off: the tree.
Before:
After:
Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, my tree has actually not changed. The only developments are just humans leaving things lying around haphazardly where ever they want: A few pieces of cloth tied around the tree’s lowest limbs (I think there are wishes written on them), and some seedlings planted in a few plastic tubs near the tree’s trunk.
However, this tree now has a name: Amsnol. Why? Well, I think the name fairly embodies this tree. I imagine if Amsnol became a human, people would tell newcomers: “Ah, yeah. That’s Amsnol over there. Been through some real stuff – you can tell”. Also, there’s a metal tag stapled (cruel) to the tree, that reads ‘American Snowbell’, so you can probably see how Amsnol comes from that.
But also, my tree has a new friend (no Amsnol does not, actually, this was an ant from my house, and Amsnol is on campus), Gumdrop the ant.
I feel like ants would be named after small sweet things they and eaten and liked, so Gumdrop it is (also the name is cute and so is this ant).
I imagine a conversation between these two would go something like this:
Amsnol: “Hey, Gumdrop. How’s life down there?”
Gumdrop: “Terrible, as always. My colony just got finished rebuilding our mound after some idiotic child decided to completely destroyed it by repeatedly smacking it with a stick. And the colony next to mine got poisoned by a trap.”
Amsnol: “Oh, well, my life’s been going great as usual! How long have you been rebuilding?”
Gumdrop: “Only a day or so.”
Amsnol: “That’s good, I guess. Lately the humans have been tryi-”
Gumdrop: “-I have to go.”
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Now (finally), the second topic of this post: The Wishtree.
In The Wishtree, there are two characters: Red, a red oak (tree), and Bongo, a crow. In the book, Red says they are an optimist, and that Bongo is a pessimist. What do those words mean? Well, you probably already know, but if you didn’t, optimists look at life in a generally positive way, while pessimists look at life in a negative way. Does the mean optimists are always happy and pessimists are always sad? No. The word just defines the way the person described usually approaches thinking about everything.
But, in thinking which most describes my way of commonly thinking: pessimistic or optimistic, I don’t think I could choose. I sometimes use pessimistic thoughts to justify being optimistic, like: “Well, in the end, nothing matters, so being outgoing and cheerful and charismatic in social settings so I can be happy ‘cause humans are social creatures and last time I checked I was (believe it or not) human, here I come!”. Or optimistic thoughts to justify my pessimism, such as: “I’ve been really happy all week, glad to know that won’t last.” So yes, that is my dilemma. Or not really a dilemma, because I don’t think not exactly fitting the term of optimist or pessimist will be a major impediment to my livelihood.
In the Wishtree, Red also says that each species has a certain naming system, for example all red oaks are called Red, and all sugar maples are called Sugar (with a few exceptions).
Which leads me to the question of: How did I get my name (It’s Mary Elisabeth, by the way)? Well, I already know that my mom’s name is Elisabeth, so she decided to name me after her, and my aunt’s name is Mary, so my parents smushed the two together to form Mary Elisabeth. Apparently (and what I did not know), Mary is speculated to mean “sea of bitterness” (accurate), “rebelliousness” (accurate), “wished for child” (whatever that’s supposed to mean), and “beloved/love” (holy no). Elisabeth is Elizabeth but spelled differently (to make every teacher ever misspell my name), and means “my God is an oath” (what ever that, too, means, also I am an atheist). So, say hullo to the new me: The wished for and beloved, rebellious sea of bitterness and sarcasm.
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