Amidst Post Oaks

Ross Krouse - UNT Geography Major

Since I joined the class late and missed out on the first mandala exercise, it was interesting to learn how to participate in the assignment. My area of choice was in the back of the parking lot of the Environmental Science Building, there was a little area that had been landscaped in a few spots, but the landscaping looked as if it was built around the post oak trees that from the looks of their age, had been inhabitants of this particular area long before they made it a “rest and relaxation” area. 

I concentrated on the post oaks as my mind began to calm down, and instead of trying to wrap my head around the assignment I just went with it. The first thing I noticed was the bark on the two trees was very similar to one another. The bark swirled around each tree like the red stripes of a candy cane around its torso, something you would think should be so uniform on everyday passing can actually be quite intriguing. As I started to look at the other trees around I noticed they all had their own personality, and like a fingerprint—not one of them was the same. In general one could say many things that are the same about the trees but when you put them under a microscope in your mind they have many differences. Every branch like arteries, reaching out to the sun and atmosphere for food. It reminded me how similar we are in a way on a small and large scale, how our arteries look so much like the cell structures in leaves, or similar to a tree and its branches and root systems, or like the Nile River’s Floodplain branching out providing water and fertile soils full of nutrients for miles. All so similar in structure, and attributable to life in such a vast way. It makes you wonder if there really is a scale of more important or less important in local habitats or even globally. Maybe the salmon in the water fighting the river, has as much impact on the world as the river itself.