Story 2.
A long, long time ago, I watched the news. It was about an activist who chained himself to the tree. The police officials climbed up the tree, struggled for a while and finally got him down. A helicopter was hovering and the media was all around. I thought to myself, “He must love the tree dearly.” And recently I read a book about a tree-sitter whose name is Julia Butterfly Hill who had lived on the tree called Luna more than two years. It’s insane! Why does that? Many may think. How does she go to the bathroom? What about a shower? She must stink. I was one of them to know nothing about it and to presume it was not much worth.
But, after reading the book, I realized that tree-sitting could be my story. If I knew what was going on in the ancient redwood forest, I could have climbed up Luna as Julia did. She was not a professional environmentalist or an expert on trees. She just traveled to California and stopped by this unique wonders of redwoods only left three percents in the world but still destroyed by the greed lumber corporation which directly had caused mudslides, extinction of endangered species, and pollution of the river, mountain and the nature.
She climbed up the two-hundred-foot-tall ancient redwood, thinking to stay a couple of nights to protect the tree from the clear-cut and then realized that in history, it seems most people are honored only when they are dead and this forest would be the same fate. Obviously it was extremely hard to endure the severe cold, constant wind and horrible inconvenience in terms of living. She admitted, “I wanted a shower so badly I could taste it. I could feel the hot pouring over my body, into my pores and through my hair, which was in such need of cleaning. I wanted to be able to wake up at night and not have pee over a bucket or a funnel if I needed to go to the bathroom. I wanted to sleep a full night through, not wondering if I would have to grab on tight when the wind picked up.”
But, she had endured for 738 days on Luna and achieved a preservation agreement and deed of covenant to protect Luna and create a 200-foot buffer zone into perpetuity. If I didn’t know about Luna and Julia, I would be the one who asks if it is really worth to do. But I now can say that her work for the tree is as valuable as anything we can do for the life. Julia said, “I prayed for healing for Luna—because it was cut through about two-thirds of it by someone later—and for the world. I prayed for the person and persons who so viciously attacked her. I acknowledge their pain and rage. How else could they be so motivated to attack something that cannot defend itself; that cannot run away. Whoever performed this horrid act needed healing as well, for they must be riddled with profound hatred and anger for the world.”
Last story.
Jesus says, “I am the true vine and my Father is a vine grower. And you are the branches that remain on the vine, so without me you can do nothing.” I know it is a beautiful image of the life because of its intimate connection between the creatures and the source of life. But it saddens me as well because I see the destruction and violence on the life day after day. People do not know how to wait for growing, to be patient to see outcomes, and to love to bear fruits. We have forgotten that all life is sacred and connected; without Cardinal Bernadin’s Consistent Ethic of Life, that is, defending all life in the issues of abortion, war, torture, capital punishment, poverty and etc. we can’t bear fruits because, although the vine and the vine grower have created all life and said it is very good, we cut it out for our greed.
My two stories resonate how beautiful is someone who had devoted their lives to take care of the life even though it is the apples or the tree. Pope John Paul 2 on a visit to the United States said, “America, you are beautiful and blessed in so many ways. But your best beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every native-born son and daughter. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival. Yes, the ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life.”