The Tree

Source: https://www.lifeinminnesota.com/20-best-places-to-see-fall-colors-in-minnesota

Evolution, my pitiless, pragmatic friend, I have a question.

They say you favor the strong and most able. Beauty you permit only if it gains you something. The fleeting Flower is acceptable because it attracts the Bee. The bright color of the Monarch would be objectionable but for its utility in deterring the Predator. Never deviating from your course, you dispassionately consume the weak and spare the fit, fecund, and resilient.

I don’t take this personally. Your dominion is impressive. It reaches the ends of the earth and the depths of the sea. Surely you could not retain all of this under your control without a Law, and steadfast obedience to it.

To my question, though. The Tree is surely under your dominion and yet it seems to defy your Law. As the sunset leaves the heart glad at the onset of night, as the rainbow heralds the return of Light after the oppressive gray of the storm, the Tree transform its leaf into a beautiful rainbow before casting it upon the ground at the end of Summer. It’s as if, in imitation of the Sun, it wishes to cheer my heart before the onset of Winter.

They say there is only one Law in Nature and that is survival and perpetuation. Anything else, if it does not contribute to these, is superfluous, trivial, and should be discarded. So, why does the Tree transform its Autumn leaf into a rainbow just before casting it to the ground? Why go to the trouble when it appears to confer no advantage upon its own survival or the survival of its kind?

If I did not know better, I would think this an act of civil disobedience. Subtle, but pointed, it would suggest the Tree’s loyalty actually lies elsewhere, somewhere outside, even above your realm. The Tree, in this merciful, altruistic act, seems to obey another law altogether. One that gives without thought of reward or benefit for self. Like the light of the Sun, with its array of resplendent effects, the Tree makes its own meager offering, as if to declare it does not belong to you at all, but to the same Light that lights the whole earth.