Down our road there is a tree. It is a very big tree. A Norfolk Pine - one of four. It is near a dead-end so not much traffic passes it. A couple of boys whose house is next to the tree decided to mount a basketball hoop upon it. They didn't have a facility or the space on their own property to throw hoops. Seemed like a good idea. Goodness knows, we hear enough about getting kids active.But no. Very soon a letter arrived in their postbox telling them to remove the offending hoop or a fine would be forthcoming. The council said it is a protected tree. Never mind that at Xmas they hang lights all over other local trees of the same species; that they regularly lop big branches off to accommodate powerlines; that our coastal windy Wellington weather frequently gives them a good working over. A ball shall not be thrown at or near this lump of wood.
As I reflected on this, when walking past the tree today, I wondered what religion, if they aren't one in their own right, tree-huggers most resemble. Catholicism perhaps? Rules-bound beyond common-sense? Intolerant, uncompromising, can't see the forest for the Norfolk Pines perhaps? Or am I being too hard on tree-lovers?
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I wondered what religion, if they aren't one in their own right, tree-huggers most resemble. Catholicism perhaps? Rules-bound beyond common-sense? Intolerant, uncompromising, can't see the forest for the Norfolk Pines perhaps? Or am I being too hard on tree-lovers?
Oh fie - they are more akin to rabid puritanical protestants preaching hell fire and damnation and the apocalypse to come if we don't mend out wicked ways
"They didn't have a facility or the space on their own property . . ."
As many don't now houses are bigger and sections are smaller.
Children are forced into public spaces to run, bike, play with balls and do the things my generation wre able to do in our own backyards. Once they're in public spaces they meet bureaucracy.
Pharisees. Definitely Pharisees.
Do not pluck an ear of wheat on the Sabbath. Tis better to let the buggers starve.
God knows what would happen if kids actually climbed the tree.
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