A couple of weeks ago I visited Yosemite National Park with my family, or as Lia likes to call it – Yoo-sammy – which I think is a much better name, and should definitely catch on. Please use it in some sentence, and forward to at least 3 friends – your luck will surely change…
On the south end of the park, we visited one of three groves of giant sequoias – the Mariposa Grove.
Giant Sequoias are the world's largest trees (in volume). They grow to an average height of 165-280 feet (50-85 meters) and 18-24 feet (6-8 meters) in diameter. They are native to the United States on the West Sierra mountains only and very few were ever cultivated outisde in the UK, Germany and such. Only the redwoods, that are also from the same family, are taller – and also can be found only in the United States. They are truly majestic beings – not only tall and wide, but they have a presence that creates an awe within anyone who sees them. We looked up with the other humans from across the entire globe, stricken by their size, magnificance and invisible aura. Jaws dropped, sighs were heard and necks were cracked.
Suddenly, a thought came into my mind - could this tree be a metaphor for the United States itself? Larger than life, towering over all the other trees, commanding the forest. Maybe simple, but it was somehow a given for me.
John Muir, an important environmentalist who helped save and create many natural areas including Yosemite wrote of the species in about 1870:
Do behold the King Sequoia! Behold! Behold! seems all I can say. Some time ago I left all for Sequoia and have been and am at his feet, fasting and praying for light, for is he not the greatest light in the woods, in the world? Where are such columns of sunshine, tangible, accessible, terrestrialized?
I can’t help again but equating some of this to what many who come to the United States feel about this country.
I later learned that with all of its majesty, the giant has surprisingly very shallow roots (about 3 feet or 1 meter deep). That’s as deep as my knee… and I lose my balance from time to time… Despite their shallow roots, sequoias are resistant to toppling because roots spread out over vast large areas - fanning out more than 150 feet (45 meters), providing a stable base to balance the massive trunk. The parallel continues… 
After the first few trees in the parking area, we were walking a bit and reached the fallen monarch – a Sequia that fell down a few decades ago and is still there. Why did this giant fall?
The monarch was weakened by soil erosion, storm, and mutilation of its supporting roots by road builders, and it crashed to the ground under a heavy mantle of snow in the spring of 1927. After hundreds and hundreds of years it has been standing so majestically like its brethrens, it fell because modern life reached the park, after roads were built around it and destroyed its shallow roots. The metaphor is echoing in my head…
A sign next to the fallen giant said ‘Do not climb on tree’. A group of six young Italian men got there, who could have been characters in a movie making fun of Italians. Soccer jerseys, speaking loud Italian and smoking. They were just missing a pizza each to be stereotypical characters from a bad 80s movie. They of course quickly climbed all on the tree. After all, they might have not been able to read English. Mind you - ‘not’ is ‘non’ and ‘tree’ is ‘tri’ in Italian. You never know - maybe they assumed the sign was saying – ‘please, Italian soccer fans, climb on this dangerously-looking tree’!
They took pictures of themselves standing on the side of the tree - it could have been a caricature presenting how the Euro has won over the fallen American dollar…
A few months ago Newsweek magazine had a cover story based on a famous new book ‘The Post-American World’ with the back of the statue of liberty in the image. I looked at the fallen giant, and between the current chaotic American economy, the rising Chinese one, and overall war mess, I was thinking – are we witnessing the falling of a giant right now?
Which brings up an important philosophical question: If America falls in the forest, will the world hear it?
Or maybe there’s much time. After all, the oldest known Giant Sequoia, based on its ring count is 3,500 years old. Maybe America is one of those giants, and there are others few towering over the rest of the forest.
Much to think about. Or not… after all, these are trees, and United States is an actual nation and all. One might say these are slightly different things. Did I mention we got there at the end of a day after I was driving for about 6 hours, and that when we passed Fresno, it was 111 degrees faherenite (44 celsius)? I might have been a bit delirious, come to think of it…
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