It is a beautiful spring day as I walk home from work. Syracuse University has a nice campus. Unfortunately, the university has succumbed to a landscaping style that I don’t care for. I call it “Buried Roots”. That is, the common practice of clearing a circle around a majestic tree and then mounding mulch like an inverted cone at the base where the tree enters the ground. It is beyond me why people find this attractive. It is as if the tree in its natural surroundings isn’t good enough for us to admire. Some landscapers seem to have this need to add mulch, sometimes in fake colors (red or black), I guess to “enhance” the appearance of the tree. Feels to me like its origins are being buried.
It occurred to me that we do the same to ourselves sometimes… bury our roots. As if our origins aren’t good enough to expose to the world. We often long to be something we are not; something the world might tolerate but isn’t really who we are if left to our natural surroundings. Oh well… just makes me wonder. It is a beautiful day today.
