Thomas Richards - 2022

Artist's Statement

I decided to write a short story that has drawn inspiration from my own life and seeing Logan grow so quickly in the last 23 years. I always remembered how “small” town Logan had felt and because of further expansion and demand for growth a lot of that feeling has now changed and has physically changed Logan. I have always loved hiking, being outside, riding my bike, and doing all sorts of things outside, and to have a beautiful lot transformed into a brand new gas station can be quite sad. Especially one that I used to visit and relax and hang out in, at the time I didn’t think twice about it, but after having taken this class I can see the impacts of growth and demand and how they impact nature and continue to scar the land.

When writing my short story I really wanted the reader to feel attached to the tree, just as I had been when I was a child. I wanted to convey that the tree and me had something in common and that we wanted to stand tall and make a difference. And later on, having this tree be uprooted and cut down. I really wanted the reader to feel the pain of having the tree be cut down, but I also wanted to make it kind of funny by having it be used for firewood. The reason I wanted it to be funny was because I wanted to convey how common this is for society, I wanted to try and show that society as a whole does not really care one way or another about wildlife and the tree itself, but they do care about the gas station. All in all I hope to convey some sort of message about the importance of wildlife preservation and only using what we need at the moment. I hope that this is what the piece accomplishes and I hope it can at least make some people see the importance of preserving our local wildlife and taking a stand to change.

The Boy and The Tree

There was a tree that stood alone in the center of a grassy field. From the time I was young. I can remember sitting in the backseat of my parents vehicle watching intently as we drove past this lonely tree. Lonely, because it was the only tree in the entire field, there it stood alone. When I was young the tree was skinny and small, just like me. Time went on and the tree and I grew in size and maturity. Our growth was unnoticeable as is with all growth and development, one does not realize how much they have grown until they look back on the past. However small the growth was, it was still present, always changing, always maturing. But so was the town, and so was our society. The neighborhood got larger, the roads got wider, more stores came into town and more people grew colder by the day. But the tree still stood, lonely in this field.

In highschool I would drive past this same lonely tree on that same lot on my way to school, and each day I would look at the tree in the same light I had when I was younger. This time, I noticed that the tree was a little bigger, inhabited by birds, full of leaves and stretching its branches toward the morning sun. I began to look at this tree as an equal. Each day I realized the tree and myself were not that much different. Each living, each having a purpose, each growing and developing, each learning. I felt a connection to this tree, but not only this tree, but to all trees and nature as a whole. I began to notice how quickly we were destroying our land. The earth plagued by humanities desire to exponentially grow and consume. Life and nature soon took not just second place, but in reality last place. Our human society very quickly changed priority and no longer viewed nature and our earth as an equal, but far below that. The tree soon took on a whole new meaning to me, in an ever changing and evolving world so focused on development and progress, the tree soon became that much more lonely as it stood among a concrete jungle slowly being choked out by the pollution put into the air by all the vehicles. The birds no longer found lodging in the tree, it became more lonely than ever, it’s bark became sick and withered.

Now when I drive by that same lot as an adult on my way to work, the tree no longer stands where it had. It was torn down, and rooted up and probably used for the pre packaged firewood at Maverik. Now when I look at the lot, there is a car dealership that only continues to sell more vehicles to release more pollution into the air and will undoubtedly kill more wildlife. I still look at the lot and can remember from my childhood the lonely tree, standing tall, almost as if it were proud of who it was, happy to be alive, happy to be in its place. It made me realize that maybe growth and progress isn’t as wonderful as our society makes it out to be. Once there used to be a beautiful green field, with a lonely tree standing in the middle. Once this tree had been inhabited by birds, and on multiple occasions had people that would sit under the tree enjoying it’s shade and life. The tree stood for something much more than just a tree, it stood for nature, it stood for life, and it stood for a message that our culture has so wholly disregarded. The tree was everything we are missing in this current age, it stood for progress, it stood for the hope that one day we could achieve an equilibrium between progress and nature.

I came to a realization that this tree is much more than just a short story, but an allegory of human consumption and drive toward progress. This beautiful lot and the beautiful tree was replaced by a car dealership. This happens all around the world but on a much larger scale, the complete deforestation of land and trees all in the name of progress and financial gain and efficiency. The continued pollution is killing native wildlife and forcing some animals to relocate to different climates and later facing extinction. The idea of continued progress is a great idea, but this idea must maintain an equilibrium between man and nature. We MUST reduce our consumption and begin to give back to this great planet that we have. Our human culture cannot continue at our current pace. Just like the lonely tree, we must stand tall and do all we can do to fight against the continued misuse and treatment of our precious resources. We must find an equilibrium state if we want to maximize the longevity of our beautiful planet. We cannot continue to ignore the millions of trees being torn down, the oceans being polluted past the point of no return, our incessant need for more energy and resources. This is no way to treat a planet who has given us all we could ever need.