Heroes Not Zombies

When you really look, there are a lot of strange features in trees. Look at this one!

What is this? You think maybe it’s an ear? Can the tree listen to the birds singing their welcome chorus to the dawn every morning, chasing each other excitedly through the forest, and calling goodnight to each other at sunset? Or maybe it’s listening to the other trees. To the sounds of the wind in the leaves. Or to the sound of another tree falling. What do you think a tree would hear, if it could?

Maybe it’s not an ear, but a mouth. What if it is a mouth? What sounds could a tree make? What’s the language of trees? Do you think they communicate with each other? Actually, they do. A lot! Just not by using either mouths or sounds. Trees in a forest are connected above and below ground. They communicate through the air by sending out a variety of molecules, especially to alert other trees to the presence of a predator. Under the ground their vast root systems have gigantic webs of fungi embedded in them which extend the number and distance of connections between them many, many fold.

I like the phrase that certain tree specialists use – the “wood wide web” – it provokes an image of an intricately, multiply connected, living network really well.

Every living organism, animal, plant, or any other form of life from the other “kingdoms”, survives and thrives through communication and connection.

I like to contemplate three flows which travel into, through, and beyond every single person, every single animal, and every single plant – flows of materials; energy; and information. These flows connect us all. They know no borders. They wax and wane across this entire, small planet. We couldn’t live without them.