The Briar Philosopher - The Root of the Problem (FREE ACCESS)

There is an old, old oak tree growing in our backyard. It’s been there for as long as anyone living can remember. It’s a beautiful old oak.  The Boy loved it so much that, as a child, he asked for it to be given to him as a Christmas present, and the wish was granted so it has been “his” for many years now. 

A couple of years ago, we noticed a wound in the side of the tree. It was pretty substantial. We think the tree will survive but there is always the possibility that it will not.  The problem is a result of a very innocent mistake made on the part of his mother, many years ago.  She planted some English Ivy around the tree because she thought it would be pretty climbing up the tree. She had no idea that the plant, while completely harmless in England, is invasive in the US and can cause damage to the bark of the tree to which it becomes attached.  I had removed it all from the tree several years ago but it kept coming back and as the tree grew the ivy was closer and closer to the trunk of the tree. In one spot the ivy plant was growing right against the tree and the moisture captured against the trunk caused the spot to rot and eat into the tree. This Spring I began the process of digging out all the roots. This is proving to be a very difficult task as it is so close to the tree and I have to kill the vine, root and all, without further damaging the tree. I will prevail because I’m stubborn and I love the tree. Whether or not it will survive the damage that has already resulted is yet to be seen. The tree is huge and I think it can survive the damage it has received but I don’t know how deeply the rot has entered the tree, so only time will tell. 

The philosophy behind all of this is probably pretty obvious. A lot of the problems we face in life started out as something pretty innocent, with no intention of harm being caused. Then we turn around one day and find out that an innocent act has grown into something that is strangling the life out of us or robbing us of our peace and our joy. So, we attack the obvious. We hack and pull the vines we can see and then we rest, feeling we’ve conquered the problem and things will return to normal. And they do for a while, but the root of the problem is still there and it continues to put out tendrils. If we are inattentive, or lazy, or just in denial that the problem is still there, it will creep back into the forefront and we’ll be fighting the same fight over and over again.  The only permanent solution is to find, identify, and dig out the roots. 

Some of our problems are so old and have been with us for so long that we’ve almost merged with them, like the ivy so close to the tree after all these years. We may even have come to think of them as just part of who we are and not something that can be separated from us, let alone removed and fixed. We may be in denial that there is a problem at all.  We may feel helpless and frustrated with the struggle. We may think we have no option but to give in and just let the vines take us. We know we’re in their grip.  We can feel the rot start to spread inside.  We know they’re affecting how we live our lives and how we see the world but it just seems so hard to do anything about it. It seems like a never-ending battle.  But it’s not hopeless. If we can’t find and identify the root of the matter ourselves we can reach out. I know that’s hard because we have felt all our lives that we should hide our problems so we don’t appear weak. We don’t want to feel stupid for letting that little innocent thing grow into a life-changing hurdle. But we are truly all human and what we find when we do reach out is that people understand because they are mostly hiding their own problems as well.  Like the oak and the ivy, we can find a way to get to the heart of the matter, and though it may be difficult and take a long time, though we may initially do some damage in the process, we can get to the root and dig it out and heal our lives. It’s worth trying.