Festivals

This morning as I was leaving home, I could not help but notice the large vine that is grown rapidly up our star apple tree. When I mention large, I mean large. One portion of the vine had actually detached from the tree and appears to be growing downward instead of upward. From a distance I could easily imagine it as some sort of aggressive, serpentine beast, something from a nightmare.

Upon closer examination, I could not help but notice some interesting qualities of this plant. The vine itself was a shade of lighter green then expected. It is smooth and tapering. It is also quite firm, not an airy, light construction that could easily be imagined as I watch the vine climb the tree. The leaves were likewise interesting. They are not in a line on the vine but rather are arranged in an alternating radial fashion. The leaves themselves have an interesting element. Where the leave of the stem meets the vine, I could clearly see two darker parts of the leave, on the left and the right side of the stem arising from the vine. These two darker parts are quite stiff and, more interestingly, growth through to vine come out like two spikes on the other side of the vine. This made me realize that these spikes were like extended roots of the leaf, penetrating the vine and connecting to the tree. This allows the vine to creep up the tree, remaining rooted, so to speak, to the bark of the tree.

Two thoughts came to mind with this interesting observations: 1) The tree, in some way, is the "earth"  of the vine as these leaves root themselves in the bark of the tree; 2) the bark of the tree must form part of the earth for the vine to root itself in the tree.

I suppose it would be easy now to understand if this triggered a series of botanical images or thoughts in my mind. Unfortunately, it did not. Instead it triggered some thoughts about festivals and the spiritual connection of human beings with festivals.

Long ago, festivals an essential center of human activity. In a way, humanity appeared to understand that festivals connected them to a larger, more spiritual world that was beyond their very existence on earth. In a way, festivals allowed earthbound human beings to participate in a spiritual activity that transcended their earthly lives. Most if not all festivals allowed humanity to turn its gaze to the heavens, almost as if longing for home.

It is all to easy in modern times to dismiss this behavior as one of a less developed time in human history. Of course this does not explain why even today, humanity continues to turn its gaze to heavens and respects, even without fully knowing and understanding, the timing of festivals.In many ways, modernization, technology, and other scientific developments cannot seem to erase an almost innate aspect of humanity that is moved by something that deeper and truly human.

What is the link between this thought and the vine? And how can the vine trigger such thoughts within me? In a sense the vine is a special image. It is a plant, which like all plants, continues to strive towards the heavens. Unlike a tree with deep roots and strong trunks, a vine literally climbs up to the heavens with the help of any vertical surface. It is a very clear picture of roots that not only nourish but enable the vine to climb. These spike like parts of the leaves that penetrate the vine to cling to the tree actual remind me of humanity's question about festivals and spirituality. Somehow, we must remain grounded and yet soar. Our roots must penetrate the earth and yet drive us upward. In a way festivals, when taken in the right spirit, help build in us this feeling of being both rooted and skyward bound.

Perhaps the real lesson of this story, for me at least, is that everything around me, particularly nature, reminds me, a human being, of a deeper part of my nature, one that is easily forgotten or neglected. That the vine is growing upward, along the trunk of the star apple tree was even more interesting. A star apple tree, a tree that is about human gravity and earthwardness (apple) and about humanity's heavenly nature (star).

It was a most interesting morning.