Steinbeck's Travels with Charley:
The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe.... Respect - that's the word. One feels the need to bow to unquestioned sovereigns....
Of course, many of the ancient groves have been lumbered off...
Fossils of these ancients have been found dating from the Cretaceous era while in the Eocene and Miocene they were spread over England and Europe and America. And then the glaciers moved down and wiped the Titans out beyond recovery. And only these few are left - a stunning memory of what the world was like once long ago. Can it be that we do not love to be reminded that we are very young and callow in a world that was old when we came into it?
|