Zombie apocalyptic, villains and a good clap

In these odd days of a pandemic, it feels as if after watching scores of the zombie apocalyptic movies we all woke to find ourselves in one. There are no aliens scouring the landscape to find human victims to enslave, torture, inhabit or exterminate but there are hundreds of thousands of us dying due to an invader nonetheless.  Those who have never had it dread catching it. Those who survive feel as if they have the mark of Job upon them. Many thousands and thousands more are alone and isolated wondering what terrible deed they’ve done to justify this dreadful visitation.

The elderly, who have lived through a World war and brought up children to adulthood, perhaps lost a partner and already cope with deteriorating health now have a new foe to face. They must isolate from the remaining ones they love. Already outcast because of the lack of access to social media connections they must feel that the curtain has fallen on any resemblance of quality of life in their final days, months or years. Elderly relatives used to put into words the challenges by pointing out “this getting old is not for quitters!” But this present landscape was never dreamt of. The newspapers, radio and TV are like sirens of disaster breeding fear and anxiety. Everything and everyone is felt at fault. Even family out of love put the fear of God in their elderly relatives instructing them to see no one and stay indoors. Everyone knows the reasons; this virus kills the elderly in abundance but I wonder for some of those frail figures hiding behind curtains in their own home or in nursing home bedrooms this present condition must seem a fate worse than death. To be isolated, alone and safe but passing one’s last hours far from all you love feels like living an unspoken tragedy. However, there is the cruel possibility that the one you love and who has loved you deeply and consistently over decades could end up alone in a hospital dying with no loving hand to hold them and that quite freezes the heart. 

There are many lessons we are all learning as we endure this present situation. Perhaps the most foul is the extremes of wealth and poverty that blight mankind. Meaning that those with money can afford PPE, clean water, soap and are able to socially isolate and have shelter, food and resources. Those who don’t find suddenly that they are uniquely vulnerable to disease, hunger and worsening conditions. Wealthier nations buy up medicine and stockpile vaccines for their own population and can view others as inconvenient or even invaders. If it was a movie we would now have identified the villains of the piece. We would loathe their selfish agenda, “Me, Me, save me!” at all costs. The mean-spirited coward who throws others at the feet of the approaching alien to enable their own escape. But we are not watching a movie we are in it and part of the cast. As usual, there are very few heroes, many villains and a huge crew of extras standing around.

So today, when the news is full of how international businesses are suing governments around the world because they have lost income during the pandemic, I suspect that some of the biggest villains have now entered stage left. No matter what the loss of life, the economic collapse, the social instability these bloodsucking entities can focus only on their bottom-line, money. While many countries are facing debt burdens that will take decades or more to diminish these selfish corporations plan to line their pockets and those of their lawyers. Their agenda is clear. It has ever been so. But in these days of a pandemic, they may have overplayed their hand. 

Do you not feel, like me, sick to the stomach that while lives are ending, families are devastated, jobs lost and recession strikes these people care not one jot? Making money is their very reason for existence and every opportunity to do so whatever the cost to humanity is justified. In the 2008 economic crash, selfish reckless behaviour in terms of investment almost brought the world to its knees. Mostly, those responsible as usual strutted away with considerable financial gain and little consequence for their actions. The world is struggling, burying its dead, while fighting to maintain health care systems around the world besieged by the numbers needing assistance. Do these corporations really think they will again be allowed to milk this nightmare for their own greedy ends? There comes a point in every movie where suddenly you see clearly everyone’s intent. You’ve grasped the storyline.  You recognise the total lack of integrity or empathy in the darkness of the villain compared to the heroic brightness of the actions of those trying to save the day. For me, today’s news made that crystal clear. The despicable selfish actions of such entities are now blindingly evident and clear.

This week 600 civil society groups in over 90 countries have written an open letter calling attention to what is now happening. Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), SumOfUs and Global Justice Now and many others have warned, at a

 “time when government resources are stretched to the limit in responding to the crisis, public money should not be diverted from saving lives, jobs and livelihoods into paying ISDS awards or legal fees to fight a claim”.

Others have pointed out that

“Public money should go towards protecting public health and people’s livelihoods, not towards lining the pockets of greedy multinational corporations and their lawyers.”

“Use of investor-state lawsuits is an attack on democracy in any circumstance. But the fact that corporations are considering suing governments over measures taken to protect human health, in the midst of a pandemic, is truly appalling.”

In case you are wondering exactly what ISDS is, The Economist in 2014 put it in a nutshell,

“If you wanted to convince the public that international trade agreements are a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people, this is what you would do: give foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever a government passes a law to, say, discourage smoking, protect the environment or prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Yet that is precisely what thousands of trade and investment treaties over the past half-century have done, through a process known as ‘investor-state dispute settlement,’ or ISDS.”

This is nothing new and here are a few past examples of this process in action. The Swedish energy giant Vattenfall sued Germany for €6.1 billion in damages when the country decided to phase out nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster, and tobacco company Philip Morris sued both Uruguay and Australia over government health warnings on cigarette packs and other measures to reduce smoking.  Yes, you read that right a cigarette company sued whole nations for attempting to reducing smoking! 

And who exactly benefits from these ISDS payouts? That would be large corporations and rich individuals: 94.5 per cent of these awards went to companies with annual revenue of at least US$1 billion or to individuals with over US$100 million in net wealth. No wonder then that the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz described ISDS as “litigation terrorism”.

There are other ways to handle injustice. If we look at the 2008 global financial crisis there was a nation that reacted differently to what happened.  Iceland was hit particularly hard its currency crashed, unemployment soared and the stock market was more or less wiped out.   However, unlike other Western economies, the Icelandic government let its three major banks - Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbankinn fail.  There was no buy out to support these banks. Instead, Iceland went after reckless bankers and many senior executives were jailed. 

Winter is Coming

My grandfather rarely spoke about the War. I believe it was because what he’d seen and lived through was so awful words could not describe it, nor hearts sustain it. 

Wars are often thought of as inevitable. A permanent affliction of humanity like the seasons. That famous soldier and President U.S Grant urged preparation for war as he felt;

“War never changes. War is like winter and winter is coming.”

Ulysses S Grant

But other voices speak of war as crime;

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

Ernest Hemingway, 1946

At times the sheer amount of death that war entails makes a mockery of either side being a winner.  Henri Barbusse described such an encounter;

“Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.”

We commemorate the dead and the heroes that return but somehow the wounded, the injured and the vile process of dying and its horror is rarely captured adequately, but Captain Edwin Vaughan came close when he wrote;

“The cries of the wounded had much diminished now, and as we staggered down the road, the reason was only too apparent, for the water was right over the tops of the shell-holes.”  

War is about killing and any method that achieves that end, whatever the cost is too often deemed okay.

“I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke.”

 Nurse Vera Brittain, 1933

Conflict can occur when two argue and disagree but when language fails its purpose then we have war as Margaret Atwood so succinctly put it;

“War is what happens when language fails.”

We have had two World wars and they are a part of our history taught in schools.  But it is impossible to educate any of us about future wars, their nature and their outcome. The horror is too great, the loss of life too terrible to convey to young minds but one of the greatest minds considered it deeply and made this heart stopping prediction;

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Albert Einstein

Of course, people fight wars for reasons and Tolkien gave a powerful reasons;

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

However even war that begins with reasoned justification  and thoughtful serious reflection and reluctance  can conclude in the mindless celebration of mass murder; 

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”

Voltaire

“There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for.”

Albert Dietrich, Army Gi, Pacifist Co: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich

I like the way Dietrich makes this clear distinction between being prepared to die but not to kill.  These letters written between these identical twins one a soldier and the other a pacifist have been compiled into a wonderful book about war and life.

The specific reasons for a war of course will have very little effect on the suffering of those who die as a consequence as Mahatma Gandhi pointed out;

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

Margaret Atwood suggested in her earlier quote that war is a failure of language whereas John Steinbeck felt it was a more fundamental failing than that;

“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”

John Steinbeck

And our choice to go to war has consequences not just on those who fight or are killed, because that very choice shapes the life we all lead in endless ways.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Perhaps the most horrific thing about war is that it recalibrates all that we normally value as humans.

“Consider human ignorance and inconsistency. A man who kills another man is punished by execution, but a military genius who kills one hundred thousand of his fellow creatures is immortalized as a hero. One man steals a small sum of money and is imprisoned as a thief. Another pillages a whole country and is honoured as a patriot and conqueror. A single falsehood brings reproach and censure, but the wiles of politicians and diplomats excite the admiration and praise of a nation. Consider the ignorance and inconsistency of mankind. How darkened and savage are the instincts of humanity!”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 287

I am not sure why thoughts of war have come to me at this time of a pandemic sweeping the world.  But doesn’t war seem particularly pointless when humanity is trying to marshal its defences against a virus that is 0.000125 mm across and not even a living thing?  Fundamentally does this not remind us that we are one family and if we cannot work together for the best of humanity then we are less than the most inferior of us all.

Descent into madness and avoiding rabbit holes

Lockdown felt, at times, like a rabbit hole down which one sinks with remorseless ease.  Its progress or regress could be expressed most simply in terms of television viewing habits.  But I feared that under the surface, far more insidious changes are happening. 

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”        Khalil Gibran

It started with "Say, yes to the dress" a programme where women young and old come to find their bridal outfit in a plush shop in New York City.  There, they spend small fortunes to find that mystical dress that will transform their wedding into a fantasy story.  In the plush, spoiled environment they prance and complain and demand still more.  After a while one grows tired of their demands and expectations.  You simply become bored with their selfish absorption of how they want to look on the big day.  It is no coincidence that even the most expensive extreme dress is not quite enough and disappointment is often clear on their cosmetically enhanced features. 

Beauty and folly are often companions.                                    French Proverb

So I turned to another type of wedding outfitters.  Nazranaa Diaries offered a much more extreme range of dresses in terms of colour and richness both for brides and bridegrooms.  The vivid colours and range of styles make the ordinary bride wear very humdrum indeed.

An extra component is that the men are regaled in outfits just as over the top as the women.  It is refreshing to see men decide what suits them.

However, it is the young brides who usually dictate the colour and design of both bridal outfits.  Remonstrating with their groom-to-be about the colours of the wedding venue, their chosen colour palette and how the groom's outfit has to fit with her dress.    Her bridesmaids often have strong opinions too and the grooms are commonly paraded in increasingly bizarre clothes that are chosen for them whatever their own wishes.  It suddenly occurs to the viewer that this does not bode well for the future of the marriage.  Just once a groom held firm to his favourite outfit and his bride sulked and threatened him.  Her bridesmaid told him it made him look ridiculous.  He decided he wanted it anyway.  After a hundred episodes of hen picked grooms it was a wonder to behold.  "But it clashes with my dress!" His bride cried real tears to get her way. In the awkward moments that followed of his weeping tear-stained bride,  he fixed her with a steely glare and said: "I want this one!" I wanted to stand and clap in satisfaction.  But there are only so many Asian outfits despite the wider range of colours and shapes and sizes one can watch.  I grew weary of the expense and the shallowness of all it portrayed.

After that, I turned to the series on Big Fat Gipsy Weddings where the wedding dresses are so extreme and over the top that after only a few episodes I wearied of the excesses.  Somehow the outfits remind me of the tackiness and creepiness of Punch and Judy puppets.  I don't know why?

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.”                         Confucius

By this stage, I was sickening of the self-obsessed prancing of brides-to-be in front of mirrors and screams of "Oh how beautiful I look!"  Quite frankly their happiness neither pleased nor entertained but merely bored me.  I needed something more hard-hitting, more emotion-inducing.  I found it in the series Curvy Brides Boutique.  Here very fat brides go to a wedding dress shop in the countryside designed for the larger woman.  Instead of being disappointed at finding one or no dresses to fit them, they are delighted to find an entire shop full of wedding dresses that actually fit them.  Nearly all these fat woman hate their image in the mirror so much that they don't like looking at themselves at all.  Their humility and lack of pride are refreshing.  They come across as so much nicer people.  Modest and self-effacing.  Prepared to laugh at themselves and with the very lowest of expectations regarding their wedding dress.  They just want to find a dress that fits, that will do.  So watching them get perfect makeup and hair then being given a dress that, with corsets, creates a waist was like watching Cinderella being transformed for the ball.  A kindly, fat, lacking in confidence Cinderella that deserved to have her big moment.  The look on their faces when the right dress is found is not triumphant but emotional and tearful.  They look genuinely surprised at their reflection in the mirror and say things like "I cannot believe I look alright in this dress".  As if being hideous was their birthright.  Their happiness makes them beautiful and you suddenly see that too.  All have stories and many touch your heart.  So many have been bullied because of their weight throughout school and they speak of the unkindness of others.  One feels ashamed at the cruelty of humankind and how much damage is inflicted to sweet souls every single day because of how they look.  A large young twenty-four-year-old had donated one kidney to her Mum and had put on a lot of weight since the operation.  Her bravery and act of selflessness which saved her mother's life spoke of the quality of this young lady and suddenly you realised what a lucky man her groom was.  The compassion and kindness of these self-deprecating ladies was the perfect antidote to the self-absorption of those earlier skinny brides.

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”              Rumi

Then, I grew tired of this rabbit hole entirely and saught the light.  Watching TV is such a degrading sedentary practice in so many ways.  You spend so much time digesting stuff that is unwholesome searching for more extreme versions of what you have already seen.  Your taste becomes odder and quirkier and jaded.    I call it a descent into madness and I tell the tale as a warning.  Avoid this particular rabbit hole and choose a healthier and more productive path.  WE are what we Do.

Last Word on Wood

Tree saves 150 People from death

Trees sometimes save lives. Take for example a large 300-year-old tamarind tree in the grounds of the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad, India.  In 1908 there was a devastating flood in the town when the Musi river rose 16 feet in 3 hours.  The resulting flood eventually caused around 15,000 deaths, destroyed more than 19,000 homes and made one-quarter of the entire city’s population homeless.  A famous Urdu poet, Amjad Hyderabadi, saved his life by hanging on to the branches of the large tamarind tree in the hospital grounds. Amjad lost his mother, wife and daughter who were drowned in the deluge. He was one of 150 people who managed to survive by clinging to this particular tree for two days.  It still stands to this day and its role in saving so many lives is still celebrated annually.

Some trees are just so historic and productive. 

The oldest known olive tree in the world is found in Crete, Greece. This ancient Olive Tree of Vouves (Elia Vouvon) still produces olives. There are only seven olive trees in the Mediterranean which are thought to be over 2,000 years old. Although the exact age of the Olive Tree of Vouves cannot be verified, scientists from the University of Crete have estimated it to be 4,000 years old! Branches from this tree were used to weave victors' wreaths for the winners of the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  The use of an olive branch to symbolize peace is even earlier than ancient Greek mythology as it had already appeared centuries earlier in Ancient Egypt as a symbol of peace. It also has its place in the Old Testament of the Bible.  It was an olive branch (or leaf, depending on the translation) which was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Book of Genesis, 8:11).  So, it has been a positive symbol of peace in many cultures for many millennia.

The oldest Individual Trees of All

Two of the oldest trees in the world are the Great Basin bristlecone pine (5,062 years old) and Methuselah (4,845 years old), both of which are from the same species and live in California’s White Mountains.  Sad note: there was an even older specimen however in 1964, a certain Donal Rusk Currey killed it. To this day, there has still never been an older tree discovered. Basically, Currey got his tree corer so stuck in the tree that it wouldn’t come out.  An unwitting park ranger helped him by cutting the tree down, to free the instrument, and later Currey began to count the tree rings. Eventually, he realised to his horror that the tree he had just felled was greater than 5,000 years old – the oldest living tree ever recorded.  It is no wonder that the location of these old trees in California is kept secret to protect them!  There is something horrific about killing a majestic living organism that existed before the pyramids were even built.

Trees also warn their neighbours

When a giraffe eats an acacia tree the leaves of the tree being eaten emit ethylene gas to warn other trees. This gas triggers them to pump tannins into their own leaves.  This toxin can kill large herbivores and serves to protect the nearby acacia trees. 

Trees keep injured neighbour alive!

In New Zealand, there is a kauri tree stump (Agathis australis) that should be dead. However, it is very much alive due to the root systems of surrounding trees.  These have kept the stump on life support by sharing water and nutrients.

Scientists have long suspected such sharing networks exist but proving such resource transfers take place has been difficult.   Researchers found the stump in a rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges on New Zealand’s North Island. Even though the stump was missing branches and leaves it was very much alive. They found that the surrounding kauri trees were supplying the stump with a lifeline of sap and water through their roots connecting with the stump roots.  Many trees – nearly 150 species-form roots with other trees of the same species to exchange water and nutrients. Foresters have reported living stumps as far back as the 1800s, but this is one of the first studies of how they survive.

The finding adds to a growing understanding that trees and other organisms can work together for the benefit of a forest.  Given that trees do it, surely, we humans need to learn from them!
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211209-tree-stumps-that-should-be-dead-can-be-kept-alive-by-nearby-trees/#ixzz6Q2T2LQB5

Making clones to live longer!

When we talk about age and allow clones to be included, then all the above-mentioned trees are mere youngsters. Pando is a clonal colony of an individual male quaking aspen determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. It is found in Fishlake National Forest in south-central Utah, United States. The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms we know.

Sadly, Pando is currently thought to be dying. Though the exact reasons are not known, it is thought to be a combination of factors.  It has stopped growing for the last 30-40 years and a study in October 2018 concluded that human interference was named as the primary cause of its demise.  I don’t know why this seems so horrific but it does.  The world's most massive and oldest organism is being killed and we seem to be responsible.

Conclusion 

I suspect like me you have a growing respect for trees and a growing suspicion we should learn from them and certainly stop destroying these precious lungs of our planet.  Their contribution to neighbourhoods around them and their very presence on this planet over the millennium has always served to enrich and beautify.  Would that we could aspire to follow their example.  Our connection to this natural world is a reality that we must respect and preserve not abuse.

"..ye walk on My earth complacent and self-satisfied, heedless that My earth is weary of you.."

The Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh

The Cedar Trees of Lebanon, useful, aromatic and so historic

Trees are pretty epic. Take for example the ‘Cedars of God’. This refers to cedar trees in the mountains of northern Lebanon. They are actually mentioned in the Bible 75 times. The ancient Egyptians even used the resin from cedar trees in the mummification process. Herodotus (484 –425 BC) and later Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24–79) had claimed that they did but this had been contested by many. It took just 2,000 years to prove that the pharaohs had indeed used cedar oil as the ideal embalming fluid just as Pliny and Herodotus had claimed. Scientists from Munich and Tübingen reported in Nature in 2003 that they had analysed embalming material from 1500 BC, found at Deir-el-Bahari in Egypt and cedar oil was the choice of embalming fluid.

These Lebanese cedar trees are particularly aromatic and very resistant to decay and bugs. King David (roughly 1010-970 BC) used cedarwood in building his palace.  (2 Samuel 5:11)

King Solomon (970–931 BC), the tenth son of King David, also used the Lebanon cedar trees in the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, even the altar within the temple which supported the Ark of the Covenant was reported to be made of this cedarwood. 

"Behold, I will liken you to a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade"

(Ezekiel 31:3)

  

It occurs most abundantly at altitudes of 1,300 to 3,000 m and is even used in medicine. Cedarwood oil has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.  Hebrew priests were ordered by Moses (roughly 1391 BC - 1271 BC) to use the bark of the Lebanon cedar in the treatment of leprosy. Leviticus 14:1–4

Isaiah, born in the 8^th century BC, the Hebrew prophet used the Lebanon cedar as a metaphor for the pride of the world, with the tree explicitly mentioned as a symbol of the righteous.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon” Psalm 92:12

This area of Lebanon, high in the mountains, used to be covered in a vast forest of cedar trees but the trees of Lebanon have suffered a period of destruction that pains the heart and is recorded in the journals of travellers over the years.

Pierre Belon visited the area in 1550, making him the first modern traveller to identify the Cedars of God in his ‘’ Observations’’. He counted 28 trees and wrote

“At a considerable height up the mountains the traveller arrives at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which is situated in the valley. Thence proceeding four miles up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars, the Maronites or the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and not on top of the mountain, and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number.."

Leonhard Rauwolf followed in 1573-75, could only find 24 trees:

Jean de Thévenot counted 23 trees in 1655

Laurent d'Arvieux in 1660 counted 20 trees

Henry Maundrell in 1697 counted 16 trees of the “very old” type

Given this quick and steady decimation concern for the protection of the biblical "cedars of God" grew and in 1876, the 102-hectare (250-acre) grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats.  However, this did not stop the British using the cedars in building railways.

In the Sumerian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh  (1800 BC)  the earliest surviving great work of literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts, the hero in the poem cuts down the cedars of Lebanon.   Strange that this piece of famous literature had 3500 years previously hinted at the destruction that would take place here!

  

Fortunately, the "Committee of the Friends of the Cedar Forest" initiated a reforestation program in 1985. These efforts will take decades due to the slow growth of cedars.  It is hoped these historical trees will be allowed to multiple and hopefully enthrall many future generations with their splendid snowy coverings high in the mountains.  They have so far planted 40,000 cedar trees so things are looking hopeful. Something so beautiful that has been treasured for so long, by so many surely deserves to be preserved.

"Regard thou faith as a tree. Its fruits, leaves, boughs and branches are, and have ever been, trustworthiness, truthfulness, uprightness and forbearance." 

Baháʼí Writings

PS apologies for dates as there is a wide discrepancy in accepted dates given - but they give a ballpark figure which for me is valuable.

PPS not at all recommending cedar oil for leprosy. But in old days being able to slap on something that would reduce inflammation/bacteria for seven days probably meant a lot that would have been considered unclean/lepers were given the all-clear and allowed to rejoin their family and community.

What trees teach us about hope and resilience

About hope in the face of disaster and death

On August 6, 1945, a 9,000 pound U-235 bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima. The nuclear bomb exploded destroying five square miles of the city. Ninety per cent of the city was destroyed and 80,000 people died immediately. Thousands more died later.

This explosion had a devastating impact on humans and even buildings.  Sometimes the two merged when humans were so powerfully obliterated by the explosion that the only visible remains of such individuals were a shadow on a nearby wall.  Most of us are familiar with those scenes of disaster.  Less well known are the “survivors”, in particular the trees, shrubs and groves that managed to survive that horrific day. 

170 trees survived in 55 locations, within about 1¼ miles of ground zero when most of the other trees and vegetation were destroyed. Over the ensuing years, the City of Hiroshima, tree experts, and citizen volunteers have lovingly tended the trees that survived the bomb. Each bears a nameplate reading Hibakujumoku  (survivor tree).

Some trees looked scorched beyond survival but despite retaining the lifelong scars of the blast on their bark managed miraculously to stay alive.  These “survivors” have become a reminder of the spirit of Hiroshima.  Indeed, these damaged trees have become perversely representatives of peace.  Seeds from these survivors have been posted to countries all around the world and been planted to encourage the importance of peace and remind all nations of the deadly consequences of war.

Over 2000 years of Resilience bears fruit

Around 1963-1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel, revealed a store of date palm seeds perfectly preserved in an ancient jar. These had been stored in a very dry and sheltered environment for centuries. In fact, Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich indicated that the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. Fascinating to think that these seeds were well over 2000 years old.  The story goes cold for a period (literally) as these ancient seeds were held in storage for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.  The story could have ended here with seeds stored safely after two millennia.

This all changed in 2005, when Dr. Elaine Solowey from the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies managed to sprout several seeds.  Three of these seeds were subsequently planted at Ketura, in southern Israel.  Unbelievably, eight weeks later, one of the seeds had sprouted, and by June 2008, the tree had nearly a dozen fronds and was nearly 4 ft 7 in tall. By the summer of 2010, the sapling stood about 6 ft 7 in tall.  The plant was given the name "Methuselah" after the longest-lived person listed in the Bible.  It is the only living Judean date palm in the world as these species have been extinct for over 800 years.

In 2005, there was hope that the successful sprouted seed would turn out to be female, for which there was a 50% chance, as then it could give fruit.  As one of the researchers pointed out, “if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."  

  

The story which started over two millennia earlier in an ancient palace was ruined in March 2011 when Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and despite all the excitement turned out to be male!  At this point, it must have seemed so unfair.  Seeds happened to be kept in a jar, in perfectly dry circumstances for two thousand years in an ancient palace, rescued and stored for forty years in cold storage in university and then brought back to life in a single successful plant which turns out to be male and incapable of fruiting.  If you were writing the script you would have wished a better ending!  However, the story does not end there.  In 2012, someone came up with a plan.  They want to crossbreed the palm with its closest existing relative the Hayani date from Egypt in the hope of generating fruit by 2022. In 2015, Methuselah produced pollen that has successfully pollinated female date palms.

As of 2019, additional Judean date palm seeds have been grown. Thirty-two seeds from locations in the Dead Sea area were planted, and six saplings have survived. Because several seedlings are female, it is hoped that it will be possible to pollinate one or more of the female Judean date palms with the pollen from Methuselah.

This ancient seed could have real practical implications for us all in the future. Sarah Sallon, the head of the project, wants to see if the ancient tree has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties. "The Judean date was used for all kinds of things from fertility, to aphrodisiacs, against infections, against tumours," she said. Now, wouldn’t that be the perfect end to a very old and odd story?

"Man is like unto a tree. If he be adorned with fruit, he hath been and will ever be worthy of praise and commendation. Otherwise a fruitless tree is but fit for fire. The fruits of the human tree are exquisite, highly desired and dearly cherished. Among them are upright character, virtuous deeds and a goodly utterance."

Bahá’í Writings

COVID-19 Hurts Hearts

COVID-19 has proved a testing disease that has torn the hearts out of communities worldwide.  There have been wide discrepancies in suffering. Not only in the degree of loss and pain but also in how we respond to this pandemic.  Those doctors and nurses who have seen the virus up close, as in Italy for example, have had to make decisions about who will live and who will die due to a shortage of ventilators.  Elderly and those with immune-compromised systems have been isolated at moments when fear and vulnerability is at its height.  If hospitalized with COVID their loved ones could well not see them again.  Sometimes we do lose the people we love.  It is hard to cope with at the best of times but it is compounded by not being able to be with them as they face death.  Not being able to hold a hand, stroke a brow or whisper words of love it feels a betrayal of seismic proportions.  Even those in the medical world who watch them die, despite all their efforts, the anguish is causing mental strain whose impact will continue in the months or years ahead. 

But whether you have lost a loved one or been treating a dying patient another unbearable anguish is added by those who have experienced neither and speak in tones of hurtful ignorance about what is happening. Misinformation and distortion of facts have compounded an already serious situation.  Especially when used for political or personal agendas rather than the public good. I have been shocked by how hurtful it is to read nonsense in such dire circumstances. 

One understands that since different parts of the world are experiencing different degrees of suffering it is only natural that portions of the human population has remained untouched and are perplexed at all the fuss.   Those who now have no sources of income and are facing poverty and hunger need to be understood and heard in these critical times.    What I cannot understand is the unwillingness to search for truth but to cherry-pick whatever point of view that suits a particular agenda. Never in my life have I blocked so many online friends and family due to them posting dismissive messages about COVID being a hoax, a fantasy.  Having seen the effect of COVID up close I cannot stomach their strange ability to ignore the suffering of so many.  It crosses a line that I never thought would be breached.

I sense we are looking at different worlds and coming to alternative truths.  On one level I know logically that it won’t be until years later will we be able to see clearly what was done right and what were complete mistakes. It is far too early to call such nuances now.  But surely in the face of such suffering, it is the barefaced lack of compassion and humility exhibited that brings gut-wrenching despair.  To all those who have suffered, are suffering or will suffer may you encounter kindness and compassion in these strange days. Meanwhile, may all of us summon up enough courage and patience to be of service to those in need.