The Maple and the Fir
Mar. 1st, 2015 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakI think of people as trees (and vines and other things, but trees right now). There are people like silver maples who grow tall, strong, and brittle. When a problems come like a horrible blizzard out of the north their branches break under the load.
There are also people who are like Douglas Firs. Every bit as strong, but they can bend with the winds of the world a bit more and so do not end up broken by it.
I thought of this because I know an old silver maple person and a slightly younger Douglas Fir person. My friend, the fir, is all worried because people do not want to be with the maple and sees herself in that situation in five years.
The maple is not my friend because there is never any give, not the slightest compromise. The maple wants a car ride and I am not going to give it because two hours with the maple would result in me wishing for an ejector seat or the sweet release of death.
So this was the metaphor I came up with. Yeah, you are a stiff person, fir, but you are not like the maple and that is why you won’t be alone as you get older. You do not need to be an aspen quaking in the breeze to not end up a hollow bitter person.
There are also people who are like Douglas Firs. Every bit as strong, but they can bend with the winds of the world a bit more and so do not end up broken by it.
I thought of this because I know an old silver maple person and a slightly younger Douglas Fir person. My friend, the fir, is all worried because people do not want to be with the maple and sees herself in that situation in five years.
The maple is not my friend because there is never any give, not the slightest compromise. The maple wants a car ride and I am not going to give it because two hours with the maple would result in me wishing for an ejector seat or the sweet release of death.
So this was the metaphor I came up with. Yeah, you are a stiff person, fir, but you are not like the maple and that is why you won’t be alone as you get older. You do not need to be an aspen quaking in the breeze to not end up a hollow bitter person.