Environmental News

May 19, 2007

ARMENIA: The Deathless Tree

By C.K. Garabed

The seeds had been planted upon the peaks of Ararat by Noah
the progenitor. The waters of the Tigris and Euphrates
nourished the roots of the seedling tree. The trunk grew
modestly at first and bent with the winds of change. But
sturdily it grew until it became a cordon of rings so mighty
that not the Parthians, nor the Assyrians, nor even the Romans
could uproot the tree. The natural enemies of Armenia could
but prune the branches and thus invigorate the trunk and
foster new growth. They did not know that what they did was
far beyond the greatest care they could bestow by husbandry.
Then came the more extensive pruning of the Turks and they cut
deep! They slashed and hacked and forbade new growth. They cut
back more and more until the final stroke that in one blow
shore off the limbs and felled the mighty trunk. But...and
this the greatest qualification, they failed to kill the
roots.

It could not think and it could not act, But Armenia's roots
remained intact.

And now those roots have raised a trunk and the trunk is
bearing limbs. Those limbs will flower one day and the
blossoms will replenish the earth and the deathless tree will
have been restored.

(From the Preface `Dedication to my Father's Homeland' to "The
Advent of the Superman and Other Presentiments" Copyright ©
1985 by C.K. Garabed).

--
C.K. Garabed has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian
community organizations all his life. He has lectured on various
subjects in a number of Armenian church and community groups. As a
writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken
commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian
Americans. He is a regular contributor to the "Armenian Weekly",
"Armenian Reporter International" and the AGBU Literary Quarterly
"Ararat". He produces a weekly column called "Uncle Garabed's
Notebook", in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes,
poems, riddles and trivia of interest to Armenian American readers.

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