Trees and the Middle East

In a movie that we netflixed recently, called "Body of Lies," which was yet another mostly gruesome story starring the CIA and its usually questionable activities OVER THERE with the idea of preventing such things from happening OVER HERE, the Leonardo DiCaprio character speaks of how he would like to live in the Middle East. In his particular case we know that isn't as unaccountable as it sounds. We know that it is mostly and probably entirely because of a certain young woman that he has met whose Arabic has an Iranian accent and to see whom he has the fortuitous excuse of needing to have her giving him weekly rabies shots. And if I were in his shoes I might almost feel the same way. Almost but not completely.

Instead, from my vantage point deep in this forest of oaks, hickories, maples, and pines in which I am so lucky to live, I would tend to go along with the retort given by the character played by Russell Crowe, when he states without any fear of refutation that nobody likes the Middle East, because it has nothing for anybody to like. And this even though I'm convinced that it is filled with armies of unusually appealing Arabic ladies, which is the main reason that the male limbarfs with which that badly afflicted region also teems are always so hot to keep them heavily concealed from appreciative Western eyes.

The reason for the Middle East's distinct unlikability can be reduced to just one factor, and one only. It has no trees, and in fact hasn't had any for a very long time, going back to the Biblical Age, And when you add to this the fact that people have nevertheless been living there almost as long, it's no wonder that the place has spawned so many uncharitable, inhospitable, unbending, and that is not to say prickly religions. Presumably characters like Abraham and Solomon cut down all the cedars and other cool trees to build temples, edifices for which j. Christ, a later man in the same line of work, never saw any need.

So the Christians were luckier. Though they still wasted a great deal of time, effort, and material on worship places filled mostly with empty space, they still tended to migrate to and become better established in regions where there were lots of trees (notwithstanding the unfortunate example of Spain.)

Trees were the original homes of the beings who eventually metamorphosized into humans, and as such they are naturally bound up with the human soul. They talk, even without the wind, in voices and with comforting and wisdom that we can all understand.

The great tragedy of the Middle East is that the overwhelming importance of having lots of woods is not at all appreciated there, and instead only bullets and other means of killing await any Johnny Appleseeds who would go there with dreams of it being a good place for living.