May 19, 2005
Leaves
The late winter wildflowers now begin to make way for the early springtime tamer ones. I am more content to admire them and to share in CP’s pleasure midwifing them, than I am to identify them even when they bloom. But what truly amazes me is the people who actually know them only by their leaves, whatever the time of year.
Leaves pretty much function alike, I suppose, collecting and sculpting the photons for nourishment, caring not one quantum whether they be particle or wave, so as to board the osmotic railroad and keep the whole process underway. Leaves may function alike, but they sure don’t look alike. Even if they’re heedless of whether we notice them (I’m not so sure of that), their elegance is only a fraction of their essential gifts to the life of flora and fauna.
On the other hand, trees are easiest to identify by their leaves. Somewhere I read that trees communicate, especially when they’re in trouble. If one gets a varmint, the others somehow know and shift their chemistry into homeland security for themselves, maybe for the imperilled one, as well, for all I know.
“Consider the lilies,” Jesus said… to you and to me and to the primates and to the church and to the world. Oh yes, and to the military-industrial complex.