picture perfect
Once upon a time, long, long ago — well, not quite that far. Long ago, there was a proud man named Grover (name changed to protect the tree) that agreed to let his picture be taken. Now, what better backdrop could there be for this proud man than standing before the trunk of a majestic, towering chestnut tree?
The proud man has been forgotten by history, dropped as quickly as a hot chestnut is dropped. But because he once posed, almost by accident, beside a majestic, towering chestnut, his image may well last forever.
The giant chestnut tree once dominated the landscape from where the Pilgrims landed seeking religious freedom to as far west as where Parley P. Pratt was murdered for religious reasons. Eastern bison gorged on the chestnuts that tumbled to the forest path, millions of passenger pigeons landed in a canopy of chestnut boughs to pass the night. 
The chestnut tree produced better lumber than an oak, and became marketable timber in less time than oaks take to be lumber ready. Now losing the Chestnut is a special emblem of man’s arrogance, thinking he knows more than Mother Nature.
A new tree, similar to the chestnut is rising in abundance in in Van Buren County, Arkansas.
So, what are we looking at today that if we posed near it our image would be treasured forever? An old John Deere still being used in the field, a Studebaker pickup, these don’t count, too many, too well preserved. We need to take the time and look around us closely, take time to wonder — what beloved thing today will be yearned for when we are old, and gone?
Don’t go running off to the end of the world, Take more pictures of the things right around us today, probably even in such abundance that we wouldn’t even miss them if one or two disappeared.
Oops, that was a thought that detoured on me. My first nomination for the disappearing act was mosquitoes.