I came across this yew tree on my forest walk at the weekend. I understand it’s pretty difficult to know the age of a yew tree but I felt I was in the presence of an ancient being.
Yews are estimated to live 400 – 600 years but one is Scotland is thought to be 2,000 years old. These figures are simply astonishing. We humans have a life expectancy of around 80 years, a figure which has shrunk somewhat in the last few years. There are some famous billionaires who are investing heavily in “life extension technologies”, but it seems to me that whole ambition is poorly conceived and remains well in the domain of science fiction. I can’t see human beings living to an average 400 – 600 years any time soon!
What does it mean to live hundreds of years? Not as a human, but as a tree? What do you think? Can you imagine what it might be like….for a tree?
There’s something I find strange about evolution. Clearly it’s not all about selecting for survival. There are unicellular creatures which have lived way, way longer than trees. If survival and longevity was the essential principle of evolution why do we have more complex, multicellular organisms such as, say, trees, or human beings? The more complex the creature, the shorter the lifespan, apparently. Is that true? Correct me if I’ve misunderstood.
Clearly the direction of travel of evolution is towards complexity and more highly developed consciousness. It’s towards beauty, truth and goodness. We are on a path, it’s just not the narrow path of life expectancy.
Heroes Not Zombies 
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