#19 We are All Connected

Shortly after I retired, I decided that I would reconnect with my gardening roots.  I signed up for an 18 week gardening class taught by Master Gardeners.  I learned about soil composition, water saturation rates, vermiculture and many other useful topics.  However, my favorite part of the 18 week class was learning the following:

Master Gardener, Bill Pierce, was telling of a landscaper that had called him and asked if  he could be responsible for killing one of the his client's trees.  The landscaper had cut down a tree 50 feet away from a healthy but now dying tree.  He had put stump killer on the remaining tree stump in order kill it  -- and the client was thinking that killing the stump had also killed the tree at the opposite side of his yard.  The landscaper wanted to know if this was even possible.

The answer was yes.  Trees and other plants with their extensive root systems send out feeder roots that cover quite a distance.  These extensive root systems  provide water and nutrients to other plants within the vicinity.  If one tree takes in water and food,  it automatically shares with the other trees and plants.  Plants as it turns out, are all interdependent upon one another.

I don't remember too much about all of the rest of the information that I learned -- but this one stuck with me.  And I loved it -- that plants are all connected -- just like we humans.  We all stand or all fail together -- although at times, it does not feel that way.  What is good for one of us is good for all of us.

I think that is what is wrong with our politics, our leaders and sometimes ourselves -- we pretend that we as people are not linked -- we somehow feel that we are better than the next, and they are of no moment to us.  But when we look out for one another, help one another, and teach another, we are forming a community of roots that tie us together and make us all strong.  When a person (co-worker, family member) starts to falter we collectively help out with our resources and strength.  And we are all the better for it.  We are all connected -- just like the plants -- whether we like it or not. 

It is time that we get back to our roots (literally), and start to live in sync with nature.  As the late, great Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in major league baseball said, "A life is not important except the impact it has on the life of others".  We should all live by those words.