Month: September 2008

This is kind of a personal entry.  I feel a little embarrassed to share… probably more embarrassed about the fact that I used "BFF" (which means best friends forever, by the way).  It was an official signifier for the transistion of the relationship.  A symbolic gesture if you will.  As you can see just above, many others have done so as well.  Only no one will be able to see mine until this tree falls or is cut to the ground.  Perhaps someone could climb as high as I did but I think the chances of someone doing so are very minimal.  It was something I needed to do for me.  

One last note on this tree.  When Stefan was here we looked at this beech tree and spent most of our interest on the gaping wound.  I had always thought that small low branch was strange in that spot.  All the other branches around were huge.  Then I realized it was a completely separate tree.  Look closely at the picture of the trunk above.  There are roots growing down directly from that branch.  I have found that beech trees create big crevices between limbs.  Water often collects there as does leaves and other debris.  If enough organic matter built up and decomposed it would act as a natural planter.  A seed could get in there, water would collect and the seed would grow.  One such beech seed did and a tree resulted.  Pretty amazing.

I put off climbing till really late again yesterday.  I was pretty busy moving from Clay and Market to Drew’s place on Charles in Germantown.  I got everything packed up, cleaned the apartment and then left for my new place.  Then I unpacked what I need for this month and took some time on the couch to watch some tv.  (Having a working tv with cable could be a bad thing.)  Drew got back from work and we cleaned and organized my room and the kitchen.  By that point we were starved but had no food so we went grocery shopping.  We came back with stuff to make pizzas.  After preparing, cooking, and eating, it was past 10pm and I was really feeling the pressure to climb.  I’m in a new place without my bike (since I left it at the other apartment for lack of room to pack it) and I was either going to walk somewhere or drive.  Since I don’t know Germantown that well yet I resigned myself to the truck and figured I could run some other errands afterwards.  So I drove to George Rogers Clark Park since I am pretty close to it now.  It was completely deserted and I walked towards the lit area by the bathroom buildings and playground.  At such a late hour and in the darkness I usually try to find an easy tree to climb.  But in this park there are just so many huge old trees with limbs I could never imagine reaching.  An oak caught my eye with a low limb so I walked up to it.  It wasn’t going to be easy, but I saw a path up at least for 20 or 30 feet.  It was more promising than anything else I’d seen so far.  

I ran and stepped off the trunk and then wrapped my arms around the low limb.  I wiggled my way to the top of the banch and then began to move slowly higher on these spread out branches.  After I had finally reached as far as I had predicted I could go, I scanned above for a further path… possibly to the top.  This climb was starting to get really exciting.  This is a huge oak tree and there was a chance I was going to be able to get to the very top.  But the path was getting much harder.  Limbs were starting to spread really far apart forcing me to choose a more narrow direction upward.  The branches were also pointing more up than out.  I began to grab branches and shimmy up until I could hook a foot around the bottom of them.  This is when I started to really get sweaty and a little scared.  Scared is good, though, it means I am doing something challenging, and I like challenges.  A few times the reach to the next limb looked too far, or the idea of shimmying this high seemed a little dangerous, but I was getting so close to the top.  I couldn’t stop without trying to reach.  I kept at it and eventually I was at the top.  The limbs were finally small and bending and I figured I was easily over 60 feet above ground.  But in the dark of night it is hard to tell.  I was excited, scared, fatigued, and ready to stay up there a long while to let my muscles rest for the climb down.  The victory over this huge obstacle became very personal.  I mean that in the sense that I felt unable to share this feeling with others.  I took pictures but with so little light I wasn’t able to capture my point of view.  My adrenaline was surging and I was really starting to feel that this was a momentus climb.  But it was a climb I couldn’t figure out how to share with you so you could really understand.  You can read these words and see some pictures, but really, it is not until you climb a tree yourself that you can truly relate.  

This is something that I try to do with my art work.  Share every part of the experience that goes into climbing a tree.  But these experiences are very personal.  My reaction to a climb may be completely different than that of someone else.  You just may not relate to my thrill seeking and risk taking attitude.  Yet, I am very interested in your interpretation of the tree climbing experience.  Be it through my climb or one of your own.  

So I would like to ask you all… please share with me your experiences of climbing trees.  If you are in no way interested in climbing now, tell me a story of climbing when you were young.  And if you do want to climb a tree, that would be great.  I’d love to hear how it goes. 

Anyway, back to the climb.  Eventually I knew I had to start.  I was a little nervous but like all my climbs, I have only myself to count on to get me down.  There is no room for mistakes… only complete focus and sure decisions.  I began to lower my body down from limb to limb and the sweat poured again.  I squeezed harder on the way down when shimmying to prevent slipping and sliding.  My arms and legs were getting scratched and indented.  I planned for each move and took great effort to place my footholds correctly to make each transistion easy.  Pretty soon I was in the larger more horizontal limbs and I began to relax.  Then I thought, I could still slip, and though I think I am low to the ground, I was probably still over 25 feet up.  I carefully wound around the trunk down to the bottom branch, layed and rotated under, then dropped.  On the ground once again, my chest was heaving and then sense of accomplishment overtook me.  It just feels so damn good.  But this tree was scary, I went so high without safety gear, in the dark… do I have a death wish?  Do I need to defy extremely scary situations with only my own strength to feel alive?  I am not sure if I can answer that honestly… because I am still not exactly certain what drives me.  People always want to know why and I ‘m not sure if the answer I give ever really satisfies them.  Maybe with time I’ll figure it out.  And if I do, I’ll let you know.