Mart-deBlog

In our postmodern globalized age, we forgot all about the roots. The tree roots into the ground. On the side where the roots grow deeper and stronger, there the branches grow higher and wider. Roots give grip, stability and nutrients to the growth of branches and the branches sustain the roots energy. The taproot runs straight down from the tree deep into the ground, storing energy and supporting the tree for its growth upward. The lateral roots grow away from the trunk in the surface where there are the most water and nutrients.

There is so much to be learned from the quiet tree.

Growing the bonsai tree is studying the way life grows. The bonsai tree needs to be uprooted in order to prune the outbalanced or rotten roots, to give space to underdeveloped roots. I have been uprooted several times in life to cut some roots, most probably you have been uprooted at some point too. Philosophy is a form of uprooting, a process in which we lay bare the roots of our experience and maybe cut the undesired ones. These are the roots within the metaphysical and ethical grounds of our being but there are many more and they are uprooted by the digging of our introspection. We have roots in our social grounds, roots in family grounds, in intellectual grounds, in aesthetic grounds, roots in dark and hidden depths and we have aerial roots. And we tend to forget that all these roots need their nourishment, that certain roots dominate others and can always be cut if one so desires. Strongly rooted branches overshadow other branches that wither and die, leaving scars of dead bark on the trunk. Dead bark can be beautiful, but often it takes energy and makes the trunk crooked. We need to be aware that the healthy growth of one branch means the deprivation of another. In the end the tree wants to grow, upward into the sky and deep down into the earth.

Treeology I: grow the right roots and cut the rotten ones.