The National Museum of the American Indian and My Own Personal Tree

I went to the National Museum of the American Indian downtown yesterday. To be honest, I wasn't that thrilled. Maybe it's that I'm getting a wee bit tired of museums and hence did not devote the time and patience it takes to truly enjoy a museum. However, the building, with its high ceilings, were quite beautiful and ...

There were 3 movies, and while the middle one was not edited very well, it really had some profound things to say, I thought. It was this expose on a contemporary elder of this Indian tribe. The tribe is very interested in plants, and especially trees.

And I must say, I, personally, have always had an interest in trees.

They're just so stately and elegant and graceful. Like ballet dancers, they have that strong but relatively thin foundation and those arms that stretch into the air with extreme flexibility. They also seem like elder statesman, with their height and memory of a distant past (which is why the Indians were fascinated with them).

My favorite tree lives right outside my home here in the city. It has always fascinated me because it has a gate that runs straight through it. Yes, deep in its trunk, coming out of both sides, is a wrought-iron gate.

What this probably means is that at one time, a long, long time ago, there was a gate and a tree began to grow underneath it. Upon encountering the gate, the tree shrugged its shoulders, and just kept right on growing.

It seems like a healthy tree, but it is right in the middle of an urban obstacle course. Coming home from the train, passing by what has become known in my own head as "My Tree," I smile and think of my own obstacle courses, urban and otherwise ...

And I know that I will grow straight through my own gates ...