Spending the weekend in Austin, TX with some friends, I wanted to check out a few of the local attractions. The weather wasn't as favorable as we had hoped on Saturday and so, we had to skip some of the sites, but Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day in the downtown area.
Among the skyscrapers in this beautiful and incredibly fast-growing cityscape, a small park commemorates a single ancient oak tree. The Treaty Oak is the sole survivor of a ring of oaks known as the Council Oaks. Many legends and historical events are said to have taken place under the shade of this mighty tree and it's fallen brethren. It is said that this tree was a centurion when Columbus arrived in the new world and that the Comanche and Tonkawa nations would meet at this ring of oak trees to hold both war and peace councils. Sam Houston, father of Texas, is said to have rested under the expansive branches of this tree after his expulsion from Governor's Office at the start of Texas involvement in the Civil War.
The tree itself is fine specimen of a southern live oak, with a magnificent network of branches reaching for the sky and some then bending all the way down to scrap the earth. Perhaps, this is a metaphor for reaching for our dreams. From my reading, the tree was intentionally poisoned in 1989 and nearly died, but with significant efforts by local organizations and arborists the tree was nursed back to health. While sections of the tree died off from this malicious attack, the tree proper survived and nearly a decade later produced a new crop of acorns, providing the seed for a new generation of hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment