Free At Last

So this is the famous Candler Live Oak Tree in Savannah, Georgia. It has absolutely nothing to do with Etzlenu and our soul food cuisine halfway around the world in Tel Aviv. And it has everything to do with it as well. I’ll leave it to you to draw your own connections.

The tree dates back to the 1700s and is huge (18 meters tall, 5 meters in diameter), but it is not just its dimension that makes this tree remarkable. It was the first tree in the US to have its own distinct conservation easement. In local parlance, it is independent. The Savannah Tree Foundation takes charge of caring for it.

There is something fundamentally comforting about being around this tree. It grounds you in a sense of place, in a sense of what matters. That’s all I have to say about that.