Pruning vs. Replanting

I had an opportunity today to watch a tree service remove two Sweet Gum trees. The trees lined the staircase that leads to the building I teach in, which will also be home to the school's new Learning Commons. As I watched the handful of professional tree removers surgically navigate 1000 lb branches into their enormous tree chipper I couldn't help but think about how the work being down outside paralleled with the work being done inside. More importantly it gave me a chance to reflect and think about the process of change and the difference between minor change (pruning) and major change (replanting).

I have been trying my hand at gardening for the past two years, since my wife and I bought our house. When we first moved in I started off trying to salvage everything on the property. Pretty quickly I realized that some things needed some slight pruning, others needed to be cut back pretty dramatically, and still others were best to remove completely. It is not that I did not like the plants that were in place, but that they put constraints on what I wanted to do. It pained me(emotionally too, by mostly physically) to uproot each plant and bush. When I was done the house looked worse than before, but I knew that with patience I would be able to build the garden that I wanted, rather than make do with the one I had.

My school's campus is much bigger than my garden and the Sweet Gums we had were much bigger than any bush I removed. These trees were really beautiful, especially in the fall, but had obviously gone a long time without regular pruning. They had long, thick, bare branches that stood out as a relic of an older tree that had gone through long periods without proper care. They also had a large footprint and extended their branches over other plants that could have met an untimely end with an especially strong gust of wind. Their dried fruit would lay precariously on the staircases that they were meant to cover with shade, creating a dangerous path for anyone walking by. I liked these trees. They had value. But I understand the rationale behind cutting them down and replanting something else in their place.

Our Learning Commons has come at the expense of our Library. The Library has been at the school for decades and the Learning Commons will be replanted in the same location. Just as a pruned Sweet Gum will still drop its dried fruit the Library, despite adding computers and other updates along the way, was still a library. It was useful. It was valuable. I liked it. But I understand the rationale behind removing it so that we can replant something else that better fits this time and place. It might takes years for the Learning Commons to mature to the point where it fits naturally into our school's landscape and it will never be the same as the Library, but it is a change that is an investment in the school's future and for that I am optimistically looking forward.

Tomorrow when I go to work there will be bare spots where the two Sweet Gums used to be just as there will be an empty room where the Library used to be. Both changes will still sting for quite a while but I understand that in the name of progress and improvement sometimes replanting is necessary.