Pollards

Thursday 4/16/20 6:43 AM

I enjoy the lightening sky of predawn. This morning the silhouettes of pollarded trees against the pink-orange sky drew my attention. I thought about the dead branches that had been removed along with the branches that were redundant, growing in the same direction as another, robbing its neighbor of sunlight and nutrients. The pollards stood nearly bare, stripped of twigs and leaves that clothed the bonelike branches that lay beneath, allowing new, more healthy growth to take their place. The severed branches had been put through a chipper, ground into mulch, and strewn in nearby flower beds to retard the growth of weeds and to provide the flowers and shrubs with needed nutrients.

My thoughts turned to the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it has on me personally and on our society and world at large. Am I, are we, being stripped of the things in our lives that are dead or inhibit our healthy growth and development? Will this crisis allow us to see that those who clean, and serve, and care for the sick, and teach our children are the bones that hold our society together rather than the bankers, the business moguls, the politicians, the sports stars, and entertainers that receive all the accolades and attention?

It seems that people I meet on the sidewalk or in the store are more polite, more patient than they were before. I see parents playing games with children on their lawns, going for walks together, and greeting strangers who pass with a friendly hello. Will the nonessential things of our lives that are thrown into the chipper and turned to mulch through this crisis retard the evil that arises so easily in our lives and allow us to be more patient and polite? Will we set our selfish, personal agendas aside to provide the protection and nourishment our neighbors, the unappreciated bones of our society, need so they can grow and flourish? I pray for that outcome.