Story of the Tree

Once there were two old men walking down an old path towards the wild country. As they scuttled along the path one man looked up and saw a tree which, to the common sightseer, might have just been another dead tree by the side of the road. Indeed it was rather un-remarkable, and yet somehow remarkable in its un-remarkableness. The man who noticed it, Tom, looked up and pointed.

“Ahoy there, what’s that yonder tree” he spoke.

The other man, Sam, looked up at the tree and shook his head, “That’s the young apple tree”.

“Young”, retorted Tom, “It looks mighty old to me.”

“Aye, it would. But it’s young all the same”

“Then how’d it get to look so old”

“Tis a tragic tale” replied Sam.

“I’d like to hear it, ifn’ you had the time”

~

A long time ago there was a young apple tree, tall and girthy, noble and true. It bore the brightest, finest apples anyone had ever seen. Like anything it had its scars, its faults, and imperfections, but that’s part of what made it so beautiful and wonderful. Just like you and your faults, your little hidden beauties that nobody but those closest to you knows and loves. It was a fine apple tree. One day a young soul came and asked the apple tree for food. The apple tree at first pulled its branches away, but then relented and gave an apple to the hungry young soul. But that soul took advantage of the young tree and stripped it bare of all its leaves, all its apples, and trimmed back its branches. The young tree was desolate, but only for a time.

Once winter had passed, and the young soul left the apple tree, spring came. The pruning made the apple tree grow larger fruit and spurt out in new directions. It was a more glorious tree than ever it had been before. As time went though, more young souls came and took fruit from it and stripped it bare, leaving the tree to re-grow every time. And re-grow it did, as fresh and beautiful as before. You see, the tree did not leave a piece of him behind with each young soul, but simply grew new pieces and let those old pieces die to be consumed or thrown in the brush pile. But the tree longed to find a young soul that would tend it forever and not simply pick him bare and leave him to grow back on his own. He wanted someone to tend the soil and pick sparingly, to prune him back so he could grow even more wonderful, and he, in turn, would always be there to shade the young soul from the heat, and feed it when it was hungry.

One day a young soul came by, and like the others before promised to take care of the tree if only the tree would feed her this one day. The tree, though it had been stripped bare before, trusted this young soul to care for it properly and not to abuse it. And true to her word the young soul didn’t steal all of his apples, only one. But then she left, and what this young soul didn’t know is that when she left she invited all of the other young souls to come and take his fruit as well. You see, it’s not that they had a piece of this tree, but every time this tree was left those other souls would come and strip him bare also, so that each loss was worse than the one before it. And so as she left, the young tree wilted again and it hasn’t born fruit since.

~

“Will it ever grow back?” asked Tom, looking sadly at the tree.

“It may… we’re still in the dead of winter Tom. There’s always hope that when spring comes, he’ll grow apples again” said Sam.

“And then what?”

“I imagine that young tree will wait until someone stays with it forever, or until it is stripped bare again”

“But how can it take it? How many times can it be stripped and still grow back” cried out Tom.

“No one knows for sure, but I imagine as many times as it takes” thought Sam.

“But why would it keep giving away its apples, wouldn’t it be better to just keep them”

“No, no, no. If he kept them they would rot, and fall. They would lay all around him useless and stink up the air, he can’t keep them” said Sam.

And so they both sat, pondering at the tree for a time. For a long while they looked at it, and then, as suddenly as they had come upon it, left.