Marash Girl recently received a promotional piece in the mail from the Armenia Tree Project Celebrating 20 Years. In the piece, the Tree Project quotes a Chinese proverb (I guess they couldn't find a fitting Armenian proverb for the occasion): the proverb reads, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." Reading this proverb made Marash Girl very sad as it brought to mind the orchard of 100 olive trees that her grandfather Movses planted in Marash, Ottoman Empire, in 1884, the year before he left for the United States, trees he planted to ensure the well-being of his descendants for generations to come. Perhaps it will not be surprising to you, dear reader, to learn that not one of those olive trees is left standing today.
More likely, we should be talking about the best PLACE to plant a tree to make sure that it will be standing in years to come.
18885? Wow, that is a long way away into the future. Is that an example of the Union of prescience with history? :).
ReplyDeleteDad said the Turks cut the trees down for firewood. Poor Turks, warm for a nite, but hungry in the morning.
How about mourning the loss of our orchard and hedgerow of 100colorado blue spruce that we planted, many of which were destroyed following the sale of our american ancestral home? The garden, referred to by Alva delporto, as that sanctum of fecundity, well not exactly, that was my translation of her more prosaic,'holy pllace'?