“What are the ideas that will liberate all of us?”
– adrienne maree brown, in Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
I like my arts institutions to have vision.
When their leadership digs their heels in, refusing to innovate, it’s time for a change in leadership.
Our cultural landscape is not where we should look to see the status quo being held up, being gripped onto tightly by those without imagination. It’s not where we should see outmoded norms grasped by those fearing that they are also outdated.
What we have in Hartford is an abundance of artists, thinkers, creators.
We as a community don’t need to bolster cultural venues that are a shell of their former selves. We especially don’t need to cater to those who put the ease of the occasional suburban patron ahead of everyday residents’ quality of life.
This is a planting of seeds with the echoing reminder that seeds grow into trees.
It does not matter if that seed lands on a disgusting sprawling surface parking lot in the heart of the city; it will find a crack, sit in wait for water and for warmth of the sun. When least expected, it’s going to spring from its hull and put down roots. It will shake up the asphalt around it as it grows. It will go from a seed that was carelessly discarded to leafing out fully, to bearing fruit. It will do this because a tree knows how to be. It knows what it was meant to do. A tree does not misplace its priorites.
Today is the New Year for Trees. While its date reflects the start of the growing season (spring) in Israel, here in Connecticut our maple syrup season starts right about now. Last year, some began their boiling process on January 23.
It feels impossible that a tree could produce the sweet sap that, after evaporation, becomes sweeter and viscous. Who thought that inside a tree there was substance waiting to be transformed into what could be drizzled on your waffles?
This, too, began as a seed.
We can choose to invest our time, support, energy, money, enthusiasm, and attention in these seemingly impossible futures, or we could settle for an unimaginative fading present.
All photos of the trees in this post were taken in downtown on January 24, 2024 except for the one with the stuffed doll which was captured earlier this month on Broad Street. I know that kale is not a tree, but its stalk is bordering on a trunk; kale pic also taken on January 24, 2024, and no it was not inside a greenhouse.
Climate Possibilities is a series about climate mitigation, along with resilience, resistance, and restoration. It’s about human habitat preservation. It’s about loving nature and planet Earth, and demanding the kind of change that gives future generations the opportunity for vibrant lives. Doomers will be eaten alive, figuratively. All photographs are taken in Hartford, Connecticut unless stated otherwise.