Strongest Tree In South Bend

I drove by this small tree often, and over the past year or so, it's condition got worse, and it was hard to believe that it just keeps growing. 

I wanted to write about it. I thought maybe a blog, then a few ideas came together, so I thought maybe I write a few mini blogs in one. I stopped and took pictures of it in the spring when it had blooms on it, and then when it grew its first apple... and then one day it was gone. 

So I thought to write a few blogs I should have written about that tree. Enjoy: 

"Just Keep Growing"
It is often easy for us, to give up. To say, I got dealt a bad hand, or we got off to a slow start, maybe we took a wrong turn... 

The tree doesn't have a choice. It had dirt, enough sun, and water, and it kept growing. It probably doesn't know how bad it looks, or how tall it is supposed to be, or even what the tree next to it looks like. It just kept growing, doing it's best. 

Just keep growing, I think of Just Keep Swimming from Finding Nemo, yeah cheesy, but staying still rarely gets you anything. Quitting doesn't usually get you much either. 

I also think of sharks, I remember reading from Anderson Coopers book, Dispatches from the Edge, that great white sharks swim or die. Look it up. It was cool I got to meet Anderson when I worked with his team on a 60 minutes episode, I shared with him how his book impacted me, and students I worked with at IUSB (it was the text in our U100 class I taught for years). 

Just keep growing, maybe it is easier for the tree cause it doesn't have a comparison, it doesn't know its behind, its small, its bent over... It just grows, what if we didn't always look left and right and up and down and compare our progress. What if we just did our best? 

"Hardest Working Tree in South Bend"
Most people drive by the tree and think how sad that is, how little it is producing, and wondering how soon until it dies. Honestly, I think it won't die on its own, I think it is why it is surviving, the owner is mowing around it, and letting it run its course. 

That tree's job is to bear fruit. Yes normally a tree bears hundreds, and this tree only has one. So to many that might feel like a disappointment, but not me. 

That tree persevered. It had blooms in the spring. The leaves slowly came in, and while no one thought it could bear fruit, it did. One lone fruit, and I honestly get inspired by each time I drive by... I think, what if each time I was down, or felt behind, or not supported like I wanted... what if I quit, what if I gave up. 

We often focus on output compared to others, compared to the standard, compared to the average... but the average tree didn't have the catastrophic damage to its trunk. The average tree also might have been chopped down, which is honest what I think will be the only thing that will stop the hardest work tree I have ever seen. 

That tree worked hard, harder than most, and it did its job, it grew fruit. Congrats. 

"Victory often depends on your perspective" 

I like inspirational stories. Like the Dick Hoyt story, who pushed his son in Ironman's for decades. Many would actual question, does it count for his son to complete an Ironman? Did he win, did they win, did they cheat, was it a victory? 

My son this year participated in Unified Track, which includes athletes of all abilities. They went to state and were ranked. Did they win? Was it a victory? 

I thought about my tree. I remember the quote on a shirt, and it was really the first time I saw and thought about the Special Olympics Motto: "Let me win, but if I can not win, let me be brave in the attempt." 

A tree doesn't have emotion, it can't be brave, and it didn't win. 

I do like to think that, before the tree was cut down, that the one apple it grew... that the little family of deer that walk that neighborhood, that the little fawn, ate that apple, and thought, wow that was good. Thank you tree.