By Kevin de l’Aigle
Yesterday, I walked around the twisted remains of the 300-year-old Witness Tree that collapsed on the evening of Aug. 31 into the morning of Sept. 1 across from the Pat Conroy Literary Center. The first feeling I got was very heavy, but soon I found myself in awe of this amazing work of biological engineering.
It is still a beautiful tree – not just a collection of logs. The crater at the center of the fallen tree seems to cry out, but what might it say as an interactive conscious entity?
Already 160 years old-at the time of the Civil War, the Witness Tree would have sprouted in the earliest days of Beaufort’s history. This tree bore witness to a Civil War that cost more than 600,000 lives to secure the freedom of millions. A photo in the Library of Congress shows what was then known as the all African American 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry Regiment drilling beneath its branches.
That year in his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln declared: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Last year, I met fellow yoga teacher friends on the benches beneath the Witness Tree as we planned a yoga class celebrating the solstice. It was the perfect place to summon creative energy at all times of the year. Sadly, now the benches are smashed beneath the weight of the ancient limbs with their leaves already turning brown.
Trees are sacred and holy. They are the lungs of our towns and cities and are critical in the process of absorbing carbon in our atmosphere.
However, we live in a time when so many trees are being cut down – trees on public land in Washington, weeping willow trees at the Kennedy Center. In my hometown of Augusta, Ga., all the trees on historic Broad Street have been clear cut for downtown “improvements,” and pavement for parking extends where life-giving trees once stood.
One might think that Witness Trees are silent, but what does the Conroy Center tree tell us? What is the message that we can gather from the tree’s collapse?
We notice that more than one small American flag has been anonymously stuck in the cavity where the tree split into three parts.
Many who witness what is going on in the country and world will do most anything to get out of jury duty and have to be convinced to get out and vote. People can tell you every plot twist on the latest Netflix sensation, but cannot name their representatives in Congress or tell you when the next election is − much less who is running and where to vote.
So many apparently educated people tell me they never watch the news. Of course the news can be overwhelming, and doom-scrolling can lead to heartbreak, but being informed on basic issues affecting us is a fundamental civic duty.
Beaufort’s fallen Witness Tree reminds me of another tree with a story to tell – the Survivor Tree at Ground Zero in Manhattan. This week, as we remember the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, I think of that clear blue September day when life changed forever. I saw the great plumes of smoke and debris looking down from my office on the 21st floor at 745 Fifth Avenue.
Many perished that day, but the scorched trunk of the Callery pear Survivor Tree still bears witness as a symbol of rebirth and hope.
Perhaps William Blake said it best in 1799: “The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees.”
May extraordinary trees like this continue to bear witness and bring an inspiring message of joy, growth, resilience, and hope for all seasons and all people.
Kevin de l’Aigle is a local hospitality executive and certified yoga teacher. He sings in the choir at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and enjoys life in downtown Beaufort with his family and three rescue dogs.