There’s an old tree that I used to climb growing in a park close to where I grew up. One day, as I was jogging through, I noticed that they layed out a new cement walkway quite close to the tree which I felt was kind of odd. A few weeks went by,  and as I was once again jogging through, I saw a small group of men out there with a chainsaw cutting the old tree down. When I got close I had to slow down and walk around where they were working and as I passed by I asked why they were getting rid of the tree. They said it was growing too fast and getting too big in a direction they did not anticipate and if they don’t get rid of it soon, it will overwhelm the beautiful new walkway they just put in. I didn’t say anything in response but I kept thinking it was equally sad and funny because they knew the tree was there when they built that walkway – They knew what it was and what it was capable of – But instead of admiring and respecting it’s own natural progress, they destroyed it because it was impeding on  a more comfortable, aesthetically pleasing,  predictable progress that they had intentionally begun right next to it.
Sometimes I am that tree.

And sometimes I am that chainsaw.