The way I see it…

This week’s topic will be trees. I love trees. I will freely admit that I, Michele Bialek, am a tree hugger. Big surprise, right? And I don’t mean that figuratively. I have been known to stop the car, cross oncoming traffic, and literally risk my life in order to introduce myself to a rather impressive oak. There was also this one white birch who was simply enamoring… Oh, I’m sorry! Where was I?

I’m going to use my beloved trees to explain my view on perspective. Growing up with a family physics teacher and science fiction expert as well as a spiritualist healer, I have been witness to SOOOO many discussions on hard evidence vs ethereal experience. The arguments revolved around whether or not ghosts and other magical beings exist within the realm of scientific reality.

One side’s position was that if you can’t see it, touch it, or mathematically prove it, how can it exist? And why bother wasting your time believing in it since there isn’t even a way to gauge it? There is no meaning anyway, simply structure! Chaos, I tell you!!

The opposing opinion was that of possibilities—why not go with a gut feeling? There are way too many unexplained experiences to think that there isn’t at least the possibility of something we have not yet explored. Maybe we just don’t have the right tools yet. I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks, I do, I do, I do!!!

In other words—What do we believe in? At what point do we feel as if there is concrete evidence in which to base our belief? And beyond that, is there any meaning behind the facts that we know or is it all simply chaos and coincidence?

I’m not gonna lie. I see the validity in both arguments. I often ended up playing diplomat and translator to the opposing sides of my family (middle child syndrome and all). What I wanted to do is formulate my own hypothesis—one to which I could relate and make at least a little bit of sense out of.

So where do trees fit in, you ask? Oh! Excellent question. OK, let’s look at a leaf. It is a picture of organization. It is symmetrical, finite, well-structured and finished. The leaf can stand alone and be accepted as truth. It is a leaf. But what is its purpose? Hold that thought.

Now, take a step back and look at a random part of the tree. There is no structure in this picture. There are just a bunch of leaves, clumped together. They seemingly have no order, no simply explained function. This perspective seems like chaos. We can take a guess at what the purpose for these patches of green are, but it would simply be a loose hypothesis.

One more step back reveals the whole picture. A tree. This is an entire system which has function and form. We are familiar with the tree and what it does. We now have an explanation for the structure of the clumps. What could have been assumed to be meaningless now makes perfect sense. We were simply seeing it in a different way.

Both of the previous scenarios are true. The single leaf is a complete structure and makes sense, but without anything supporting it, we don’t know its function. Taking one step back did nothing to explain the purpose, it just presented chaos, although we can touch it and see it and know that it exists. We needed to focus a little farther out to see the “complete” picture.

Now I ask you this—from the ground level perspective of our tree, can you see the roots? You may catch a glimpse of something poking out of the ground which hints at a deeper structure, but without the proper tools to investigate and study it, the connection this entity has to the earth simply has to be believed. It remains a mere possibility that there is more to this tree than meets the eye.

All of these perfectly formed elements are a small part of a larger truth. The picture can be zoomed in and out as much as you like, but the limits of our perception are imposed simply by our lack of resources. Just because we can’t prove something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist—we simply don’t have the right tools to see it. Yet.

So maybe the next time you are taking a walk or driving down the road, notice the trees as you go by. No, don’t swerve and hit one, for God’s sake! Pay attention to the road. Pull over and introduce yourself. And the next time you are posed with a difficult problem which seems overwhelmingly complex and hard to wrap your head around, try wrapping your arms around a great big elm tree, looking up and listening to the rustle of the leaves. They are talking louder than you think!