At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉
What if trees stored memories?
If they would store memories-we, as humans, would be dead meat and i wouldn't blame them one bit
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing they don't move far or fast...
DeleteWhat a cool concept! It would be awesome if, after an ancient tree fell, a section could be collected and the log's rings played out as with modern media.
ReplyDeleteThat would be awesome.
DeleteWow what a great question!!!
ReplyDeleteJadieegosh Instagram
They do in their rings but more details would be good.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz - I'm sure they do ... their mycelium links around the world ... so travels surely and widely - and most definitely the trees talk to themselves.
ReplyDeleteThere's an event here where Fern the Folklorogist, who lives in the woods and has secrets, and has stories to tell. There was a time when trees could speak but the Great Storm (in SE Britain 1987) changed all that ... or did it?
So lots of tales to be told by those magnificent trees ... cheers Hilary
That sounds like a really interesting concept for a book.
ReplyDeleteThey do in their rings.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised what trees are capable of. We just don't know, and maybe we'll never know, but I think trees have feelings, and intelligence. I also believe they can communicate with each other. One day, they may decide they are sick of their enemies, the humans, and do something about us. Scary thought.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing they don't move far or fast, or we'd already be gone.
DeleteI hope they would share them if we asked them too.
ReplyDeletebetty
My first thought was if they stored OUR memories. If trees stored OUR memories, it might make people hesitate to cut them down so fast, destroying recorded histories. OR... it might make people seek out the tree that stored a particular memory in order to destroy the tree and the memory within. (Like my flash fiction about the woman and the tree.)
ReplyDeleteI didn't specify what kind of memories, so sure, they could store ours. (I think that's where my brain went when I came up with the question, too.)
DeleteI believe trees do have memories and they are stored in the base of the trunk. However, since they are both blind and deaf (no eyes or ears), they have no way of observing their surroundings. Their memories are just decades of absolute boredom and the occasional thought of "Did something just touch me? What was that?"
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteLiz,
ReplyDeleteThe question you posed set off a poetic like comment in my head and this is what I'll leave you with....A tree is just tree or is it really more than we can see? If memories were stored in the rings of a tree oh the tales a tree could tell. From days to centuries past, of truths and lies, the glory and bewailing they could describe. Would we despise these keepers of time or welcome the sweet reprise? I guess we'll never know because a tree holds secrets for as long as they are tall until all nature is gone.
Good question! ;)
I am sitting here thinking about that question and I am sure that along the way, if they stored memories that there might be a couple that would be mad at me for climbing them! haha....or better yet since becoming an adult mad at me for cutting back their limbs. BUT...I have never cut one down! haha
ReplyDeleteBut you cut back limbs for their own good...
DeleteTrue but in most cases it was for my own good! haha...The trees that grow on the other side of the narrow creek at my driveway grow up and over the drive. On rainy days they are weighted down and when I was driving me big ole honking GMC truck that was rednecked out and jacked up high it would hit those limbs so I just pulled the truck up, climbed up in and on the cab and kept the limbs cut....when I was younger there was not much that stopped me from doing......
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