Happy New Year

When I run outside, I stick to the bike path, so I run by this tree a lot. For the past couple of weeks, I've noticed the unique arrangement of leaves on the tree and thought to myself that they almost look like someone put them there. But I never took the time to stop and take a closer look (don't want to mess up my running rhythm!) until today.

Here's what the tree looks like from a few feet away.

Here's a closer look. What appears to be leaves is actually origami figures strung together.


This morning when I saw this I immediately thought about the recent fires. I was at the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association meeting at College Church the other night and I was struck by how no one in the room seemed to be there to advance their own agenda, which is something of a novelty at public meetings around here. Instead I got the feeling that almost everyone there was looking for some information and some direction about what they can do to keep themselves safe, help the victims of the fires, and restore the feeling of being a part of a caring community where we don't have to look at each other with suspicion.

And speaking of looking at each other with suspicion, the idea being promoted by some people around town that everyone should go out and and buy video cameras and start filming everything that goes on around town is a bit misguided. We're already potentially dealing with a member of our community whom we can't trust with matches--I don't want to be in such a hurry to trust everyone in town to do the right thing with video cameras. And I've seen cats perform open-heart surgery in videos on YouTube. What we can see in a video is not always the truth, and the people who show us videos don't always have our best intentions in mind.

But back to the tree by the bike path. The fact that someone would take the time to decorate a lonely tree out in the middle of nowhere is a sign of how people in this town really do care for each other. It's a sign of hope, that together we can achieve great things through small gestures and overcome evil and hatred in the process.