hooray for freeway trees?
there’s this tree that lives outside my window. it pokes its head out between the north and southbound lanes of i-5. i’ve been trying to photograph it since i moved to seattle and today i think i finally got it, though tomorrow i’ll think that i didn’t.
i don’t know if i love or hate this tree. love it for saying ‘fuck it’ to the thousands of cars that drive by each day, or hate it for not realizing that it should just give up. i also don’t know why i am powerless to not try to give this tree a personality and a story.
i do know that i’ve only felt this way about a tree a few times in my life. there’s another tree that grows between the north and southbound lanes of 880 in oakland (it might actually be an oak tree now that i think about it). that tree seems tough as shit and there’s no way the gentry will knock it down. that tree makes me so incredibly happy, though i kind of wish that it was elsewhere and could rest quietly. something about these isolated freeway trees makes me nervous and completely nuts.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:49 am
anytime I see some piece of nature fighting back against man I cheer. ESPECIALLY when paradise juts up into the parking lot, so to speak.
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:46 am
as you know, i have a twisted predilection for running alongside freeways. i understand how that tree feels. and, if i could explain my twisted predilection, I’d be able to tell you why that tree hasn’t given up and why, in fact, it’s probably having a ball there. (i think it’s to do with enforced loneliness, roaring excitement and constant flux. then again, that could just be a pretentious, after-the-fact excuse for my carbon monoxide addiction.)