Linden

American basswood (Tilia americana) has one of the more distinct flowers and fruit formation of the trees in the neighborhood. This is the flower, the pale leafy thing is the petal. In a few more weeks it will drop these berries onto the right-of-way next to my house and color the street for a short time. Last year, when I didn't look carefully, I thought this was a mulberry tree. I didn't look at the flowers or pay attention to the berries, I only saw the spilling of berries all over the ground. Sometimes casual attention is horribly ineffective. Quick conclusions lead to mistakes and misimpressions. Does it matter whether or not it is a basswood or a mulberry? Could it not just have been an oak or a maple, without any difference to anyone or anything? What is one tree, after all? What is knowledge of it? Why such variety of plants and animals if most of us go through our own lives noticing none of them, or only a select few and not even seeing the others. How many corporate logos can you draw from the top of your head? How many different leaf types? Does nuanced information make a difference in the complexity of your thought? Henry thought it did.

The word being used now for New Orleans is murder. The most technologically advanced and militarily ready country in the world could not respond to tens of thousands of its own people starving and suffering and drowning. How many of those poor victims were left to vanquish because of Bush's foolish war in Iraq? How many were left simply because there were no wealthy people to serve in that southern city? The cracks were showing in the armor. This event will rift the whole establishment. There is no excuse for murder. We, even some who once supported this president, are horrified and disgusted. We notice this is not a mulberry tree, it is American basswood, also known as the Linden tree.