These pines are about the tallest trees on this rock.
Someone told me they were called Norfolk Pines but I don't really know. All I do know is that they're really tall and, while I was pondering the top of this one, I thought how it must be nothing but airy and quiet up there.
I imagined how, if we were all just three inches tall, a community might survive up there; safely above the pundits, priests and politicians down on the ground, kicking up all that dust and ruckus to wage war, pick our pockets and sell us their particular brand of Jesus.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
above the fray
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That indeed is a "Norfolk Pine" which -- like the "Australian Pines" of Fort Zach and Christmas Tree island -- actually isn't a pine at all. But it kinda looks like one.
The problem with that tree is that it's about as strong as balsa wood. The only reason it's so tall is because it grows so fast and was probably not too tall when the last Hurricane hit. If it had been so tall then, it would have been snapped off. Or at least all the branches would have been blown off.
On the mainland you'll see lots of them all spindly with only a few new branches growing up near the top since the 2004/2005 prunings by all those storms. And some scrawny little new branches down below among all the broken branch stubs.
So those 3-inch people living up there would probably be oblivious to the fact that they are going to get blown away one day (much like the rest of us on here on this lovely island....)
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