Back in January I alluded to the fact that I might be a “treehugger”. It has taken me six months to put it in writing but it is true. If you ask 10 different people what a “tree hugger” is you’d probably get 8 or maybe 9 different answers. In my mind, I am the admirer type “treehugger”. I just love trees and hate to see them cut down, even if they are sad little specimens like the Christmas tree off of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Honestly, I have never had the desire to go save the rain forest or entangle myself in a web of chains around a tree, although very noble, but I once verbally expressed my dismay to the man in the process of cutting down a beautiful elm in town several years ago and I also would have begged (on my knees) to save an oak and huge cedar tree had I known they were to be cut down. The sight of a newly logged piece of land is like a dagger through the heart (not really) but it does make me SMH, which I learned recently means “shake my head”.

My youngest daughter tells me my treehugging is a direct result of having an over abundance of sentimental value and being resistant to progress (whatever that means-SMH). My oldest daughter tells me it is a result of going to college at The University of Texas at Austin in the 1960’s and I simply brought some “weird” back with me. My wife says it’s because I’m an “Old Folkie”, not “Fogie”, although I have a feeling I’ve been called that a few times. She says my appreciation for the music from the American Folk Revival has shaped my outlook on nature and has enhanced the beauty I see in creation (She’s a Longhorn, too). In reality, it’s probably a culmination of all those things plus being raised in the rural country of the Piney Woods. Some people are sports fanatics, some have an interest in the Arts, some people like to world travel, me, well I’m a treehugger. So, this summer while some of you may be “Leaving on a Jet Plane” to take a grand vacation or perhaps while on a trip “Back Home Again”, I’d like to encourage you to try and take a little time to hug a tree or at least admire one “Blowin’ in the Wind”. For me, well I am just hoping to find some “Sunshine on my Shoulders” and maybe, just maybe I’ll go out and plant a “Lemon Tree”.

P.S. For all the non-folkies out there who didn’t catch my music references, take a listen on the internet. I will warn you though it might make you SMH.