The Silver Birch

A silver birch tree has an average lifespan of fifty to sixty years, but can live up to a hundred years old. A tree that lives old enough can watch a whole community change, watch a young child turn into an elderly citizen, and see the deforestation of hundreds of trees to know its own demise. Yet, in its lifespan, it can impact so many lives by just being there, as support and even as a member of the community. In 1971, Sam bought a little tree seed from the garden store and planted it in his neighbourhood park, right down the street from Hawthorn Middle School, where Sam had just come from. He made his way over to an open green field, where there were barely any trees visible for many metres, and dropped his seed into the firm soil. Sam finished burying the seed and coated the area with the rest of the water from his water bottle. It was almost dark by the time Sam got home from the park, where he fell asleep later that night, excited to see the growth of his tree the next day.

Sam was a little disappointed the next day to see that his tree had not grown at all. One can hardly see growth within a week, but over 50 years, trees, people, and civilization can grow immensely.

Reina. Looking down at the scrolled up diploma, Reina wondered if she had made the right decision. For the last four years, she had attended the University of British Columbia and finally graduated last week, with a degree in engineering. All throughout high school, Reina was a star student. A's acquired in all of her classes while also juggling two part time jobs to help pay rent for her family's apartment. Reina had always liked math and science, simply because she was good at it; but she didn't love it. Between studying for tests and being buried up to her nose in assignments and lab projects, she would paint in her free time. One of her artworks hanging on the wall above her bed showed a thin tree with a white trunk in an open field, painted using varying strokes going in many directions in the style of realism. Reina had drew inspiration for her painting from a tree located in the park just outside her apartment complex. It was one her favourite paintings she had ever done because she always felt a special connection and admiration for the tree; how it was so unique and located far away from any other tree. She loved how people of all ages could sit under the it, for shade or even just as a communal resting point, there to aid to everyone's different adventures. It brought a sense of community to the park and she felt her painting represented a long lasting symbol that it would always be there. Her parents were always supportive of her art projects but Reina knew that they were struggling to make ends meet; it was always hard for people in her area to find comfortable-paying jobs when most of them spoke English as a second language. In the end she chose engineering, certain that this path of study could help out her family of four siblings along with her parents to pay rent for many years to come. But deep down, Reina knew that her love of art was never just a hobby.

Steven and Jack. The two brothers walked down the street away from Hawthorn Middle School, arguing loud enough for the whole neighbourhood to hear. “What do you want me to do?” Steven asked. “I think you’ve done enough” Jack retorted, leaving muddy footprints behind him. Steven tried catching up to his brother by taking wider steps. “Look, I’m sorry! I didn’t ask for this, they wanted me on the team! It’s not my fault!” Jack laughed bitterly. “Well if you had just waited in the car instead of coming to show off your ‘basketball prodigy’ skills, they would have offered the spot to me! I was this close!” Jack yelled, holding up his finger and thumb, demonstrating the size of a thumbtack. Steven, being the youngest child only by one year, somehow still ended up being the favourite in everything, and Jack was starting to get tired of it. There was rarely any day lately where they weren’t mad at each other for something. But this had not always been the case. As kids, they were inseparable. Strangers had always mistaken them as twins when they used to play at the school park. They used to pretend that the old birch tree there was their personal tree house and that they were the kings of the castle. As the brothers got older, they stopped playing at the park and started to have less things in common and thus, grew farther apart.

Juliet. As a young girl of 8 years old, Juliet’s day to day routine was pretty simple. Wake up to a yummy breakfast made by Dad, then play at school for the day, and then walk to the park after school with her older sister to play some more before coming home. Juliet loved the park’s single standing tree and loved the pretty leaves that grew from its branches. It was rare to see a little kid admire a tree more than the park’s swing set. While Juliet spent most of her time around the silver birch, other kids would be sliding down slides and scaling the monkey bars, which meant that Juliet usually played alone. She didn’t care too much about that anyways since she would rather spend her time admiring the tree. One day as she came home from an amazing time at the park, her beaming smile quickly turned into a dejected frown which immediately became a crying tantrum, when she heard the news that the tree was to be cut down.

Sam. Now a sixty year old, Sam spends most of his days working on small home renovation projects or finding new things to watch on TV. He has three kids, or for a better word, adults, that left the city to grow their families or to follow their career duties. They rarely ever visited him and although he knew about their very busy schedules, he did miss company from time to time. Sam knew all about the city’s plan to remove the small silver birch tree, his childhood friend, and the only thing in the way of the park’s new communal phone charging station scheduled to come the following week. Of course he was sad to see it go, but with all of the new technology popping up these days he wasn’t surprised to see it end like this.

-

As the week passed it was soon time to cut down the seemingly small and careless tree in the park. No one really cared about the tree all that much except for the five strangers who cared enough to see the tree’s last few moments.

A sort of informal memorial was held where all parties shared their stories of the impact and inspiration this silver birch had on their lives. Jack and Steven, who refused to talk to each other on the way to the park, exchanged a few meaningful glances while listening to Reina’s story of her family’s closeness and her connection with the tree. As Reina listened to little Juliet’s plea to stop the tree from coming down, she remembered how easy it had been to make a decision, to go with what she believed in; fighting for the things that made her happy. During Sam’s sharing, Juliet became quiet as he told his story of that day in 1971, and she believed that she had found a new friend; a friend who admired the tree as much as she did. And Sam admired Jack and Steven’s recount of their story as well as their brotherly relationship, as Sam himself was an only child, watching his tree grow as he did. What each person seemed to lack was another perspective, one that was maybe older and wiser or maybe younger and more innocent. The tree that had once been their happy place and a protection from life's challenges was to be cut down, yet they had found the beginnings of an unseen understanding and connection in the people that shared the love of the silver birch.

The group watched as the chainsaw cut through its thin trunk; the tree slowly, then rapidly giving way to gravity, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

The group, a group of strangers that will be connected for all of life even if they never speak again, went their separate ways with a greater understanding than with which they came. As everyone headed home, Sam made his way towards the tree and plucked a small seed off the broken branch and clutched it in his hand. He then made his way towards the backyard of his own home and dropped the small seed onto the freshly mown grass.