CW: suicide, self-harm
I don't think there's any simpler joy than that of climbing a tree. I love contorting myself around limbs, exploring different paths, venturing as high up as I dare, finding the most pleasurable place to sit, and experiencing the world differently from inside its embrace.
Two springs ago, I was suicidal. One day, after class, I decided to climb a tree. I had climbed it once before, but this time was different. The tree, an American Bass, completely enveloped everything underneath its crown. Unlike the surrounding landscape of surveillance, it gave me privacy. When I arrived at the top of that tree, I wanted to jump, to hurt myself or die while falling. But I didn't jump.
For a long time after, I thought that the tree was making me suicidal. I was angry at it, and the sight of it during walks disturbed me. Now, I see that it was actually giving me an opportunity for life, for rebirth. It gave me a place to shelter, to acknowledge my negative emotions, to love, and to choose whether or not I should continue in this form or join the soil. It was a joyous choice and I'm happy with my decision.
Any random member of the Columbus proletariat could climb up that tree. It's not chained or guarded or fenced, and it hasn't been pruned so its limbs are publicly available for climbing. I often wonder how many others have found solace in that tree.
While walking down the Scioto Mile earlier this year, I was brought to a sight which had me in tears. All of the trees, which were mostly in their teens or twenties, on the cusp of their lives, were pruned of their lower limbs. After removal, the limbs were taken away, not allowed to fuse with the soil of their home. I can only speculate that instead they turned into mulch, biofuel, or something of the like.
The trees are still there but they're not climbable. This is a great sadness and a great disrespect. If there's no simpler joy than that of climbing a tree, then why take it away? Why take it away from young people? From people who live downtown? From children? Why take away the aptitude for joy?
Well I can see one main reason, and it's to make lawn equipment and large mowers able to conveniently go through the grounds. That is disgusting. I don't want a landscape that's based around a monoculture of Kentucky bluegrass with trees that aren't climbable! It's sterile, it's not enjoyable, and makes me sad. It makes me cry. Those limbs should not be removed, and the fact that they were is a great affront to children, youth, and all others who get a simple joy from climbing trees. It's also a testament to the colonial dominative relationship that the city has with its landscapes and its parks; one which must be subverted.
We should not be pruning the lower limbs of trees in public parks. No. Instead, we should let them thrive. We should climb them, and we should make a rewilded public decolonized landscape. One without pesticides, systemic murder of non-humans, and the bleeding of sap out of the wounds of trees that were pruned for no good reason.
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