I’ll probably come off crazy for saying so, but I like to believe trees have emotions.
Without getting too technical, I define emotions as experiences which color our perception of the world and influence our interactions with the world. Emotion involves more than neurons in our brains firing. It involves the chemical/hormonal stuff regulating our metabolism, our heart rate, our ability to communicate, and our ability to literally feel the world around us.
I would say trees have that too. Trees have their own metabolisms, their own rate of moving vital fluid through their limbs, their own means of communication, and their own ability to feel and react to the world outside them. Granted, none of those things are emotions. An emotion would be something a tree experiences, thereby affecting many of those other processes in a consistent way.
So where’s the evidence for that? Let me tell you!
There are countless examples of trees grown from the same cuttings and root stocks (genetically and developmentally identical), planted feet apart at max (exact same environmental and nutritional circumstance), with the exact same care and treatment (no apparent differences in health). Still, one tree in the bunch will drop its leaves weeks before the others come autumn. The tree isn’t just reacting to external triggers like a machine; it decides for itself. Each tree has its own unique response and experiences internal “attitudes” which help it decide how to react to situations.
Why?
On the surface, the lack of an obvious reason for a tree to have emotions is probably why I seem so crazy right now. And it’s probably why you’ve never given a second thought to a tree’s feelings before.
But let me ask you something: Why do humans have emotions? Life would still be life if we didn’t have a vast array of emotions tinting our perspectives from hour to hour. If everyone was simply locked into one attitude their entire lifetime, we would still be able to recognize things as right or wrong, beautiful or painful, wonderful or tragic.
Yet… emotion helps us process the crazy stuff happening around us. Sadness and anger help us respond to things that are unjust. Happiness and giddiness help us embrace life circumstances where everything seems to be in its proper place.
But more important than that, emotion finds purpose in relationships and in community. It influences if and how we decide to relate to those around us. Emotion expresses comfort, hostility, or need. Plus, can you imagine how slowly new ideas would be invented if, day-in and day-out, everyone in a work place looked at issues from the same perspective?
Again, I would say trees have that too. They need to express to other trees if they’re in a place where they can share nutrients with neighbors or if they’re in a place where they desperately need support. A forest needs trees who are on different wavelengths when it comes to things like shedding leaves. If a cold front comes early in the season, then you want those anxious trees who prepare for winter quick, you know, in case it stays that way. However, you also want those lollygagging trees who keep their leaves, just in case it warms back up again.
Sad Like Trees
“Why emotions” is something I have to wonder as I go through my own emotional highs and lows… well, mostly the lows. For some reason the last week or two was especially low.
I mean seriously, why depression? How is that a thing? There is almost nothing redeeming involved. Is there?
Well, studies show that depression—while incredibly unhealthy and unhelpful long-term—does actually help individuals think more expansively and more critically about the world around them. And on the community level, how else are you supposed to signal to people that these two things are happening simultaneously: a) I see something wrong in the world affecting me, and b) I need help with it?
Trees get sad. Their leaves will droop. Those gigantic 100-year-old plants will stop working so hard to support the trees around them. They’ll hide all their stores of sugar and vital compounds down below the dirt for safekeeping.
People get sad. I get sad. My shoulders droop and slouch. My motivation to do anything takes a nose-dive. I hide things vital to my life (along with the rest of me) under the covers while I sleep-in and hide from daylight… You know, things you can relate to.
The difference is that trees can’t think. Nor can trees choose to act anyway besides how they “feel.” But people do. If even depression has a purpose to be found in community, then I want to be more like trees by embracing that purpose. If expressing sad feelings is the God-ordained way of dealing with “something’s-wrong-and-I-need-help,” then I want to be like trees by actually expressing that emotion.
Maybe I’m crazy. But I hope you can find ways to express your emotions like trees too.
P.S.
I’m not presently depressed. But I have my moods. And I have awesome friends who can ask how I’m doing and help me express my low-down feelings. So shout-out to them for being incredible.
Also, no explanation for why there’s so much Disney in this post. It just felt right.
