8-31-2020

I counted 438 growth rings, checking as I went (if you zoom in, you probably can too). I figured another 15 years at scale, for the center that is rotted away, though it’s probably considerably more. For example, I have Sugar Pine saplings partially shaded in the woods right behind my house that were three inches tall twenty years ago and are now eight inches tall with a diameter of about a quarter inch. So this tree was likely most of five hundred years old. For most of that time, it lived in a primeval world, in which humans were just another part of this richly intricate ecosystem. Then it was cut down merely for some man’s make-believe profit, to pay for the upkeep of his extravagant summer mansion, one of many. That crucial point of inflection in the history of life on this planet lies within these subtle grooves.