I’ve found Richard Powers’s The Overstory quite refreshing so far. Up to this point, it’s been short stories about people, but looking at the table of contents, I see that it ends with three much longer chapters. I’m intrigued.
The story I started reading today, “Patricia Westerford,” is about a woman who was born partially deaf and developed speech more slowly. Because of this, she is content to explore the world of plants with her father, and goes on to some academic success in the field of botany – until she publishes a paper claiming that trees could communicate with each other.
Now, I know that this is just a story, but I also know that Powers is drawing from real life. I’ve read about the underground networks of trees, and how clear-cutting decimates forests while selective logging – leaving several trees in place – leads to a much better recovery of the area. Trees protect themselves and those nearby, and leaving some behind maintains that hidden network. I find this such a fascinating aspect of creation.
In the story, Westerford, though her research is solid (but too far ahead of its time), is pilloried by the academic establishment in the field of forestry. She loses funding, along with the interest and support of her peers, and finds herself doing odd work that keeps her close to her beautiful forests, but far away from people. Powers does a wonderful job with all of this. The depth of his description adds to the raw beauty of the story itself.
There may have been a time in my past when I felt a connection with the natural world in a spiritual way. I could see the beauty of trees and feel the life in them. Now I see the natural world as an incredible miracle that declares the glory of its creator. This is what science does for us – it shows us the depth of the wonder of everything around us. To be able to see the intricate interconnectedness of things doesn’t require that you deny God. It merely shows how far beyond our comprehension God really is. It’s such a big win, trading the spiritualization of God’s creation for the creator himself. I don’t have the hopelessness of relying on the spirit of the trees to enrich my life in the present, I have the hopefulness of living in eternity with the creator of the trees himself.
This is so much more exciting.