One of the neighbors was staring at a tree as he walked up to me, the hood up on my pickup as I checked the new fuel filter for leaks.

“You know, I drilled that tree in 4 directions and I poisoned it.”
“Oh?”, I said, politely semi-interested.
“Yes, I drilled in 4 holes, one in each direction, and I poisoned it.”

My youngest cousin walks up, and the process repeats with a new person.

A silence hung.

I asked, having now looked at the tree and seeing that a few branches were dead and most others not, “How long ago?”

“2 months now.”, he said, staring at the tree.

The silence that previously hung returned. We all looked at the tree – watching the fresh branches nearer the base.

The tree was not near death. The dose was too low and the tree was recovering as if it was getting over the common cold.

Rather than state the obvious, I went with something deep in the hope that it would cause some thought and I could escape the odd group of three men staring at a tree… because… that’s not who I am.

“Life finds a way.” A nice deep thought to consider.

“What do you mean?”, asked the neighbor, unwilling to have fun with the deep thought.

Slightly exasperated, I returned, “Have you ever noticed that stupid people have children? How?”

“Ohhhhhh….”

Escape.