Reference: "Brain Wave Diary" (10/08/00)

And the award goes to…

I have noticed something about the phenomena of accolade events, they all seem to feature people. There are recognition awards and presentations for almost anything a human can do. From brains to beauty, talent to ineptitude there seems to be no shortage of awards. It seems to me this is a little presumptuous on our part if not downright self-serving. Never mind they are about, "My gift is better than your gift", like the individual earned them!

(There is merit in recognizing application of a gifted talent or attribute for it encourages the using of them and encourages others to use theirs, but does it have to be SO commercial?)

Still, what about non-human accomplishments? As an example, trees. There are countless varieties of trees and each has demonstrated extraordinary effort to exist and remain as distinct specie on this miracle planet we call earth. Through countless ages they have withstood every extreme of climatic and catastrophic circumstance imaginable even though ill equipped to know, understand or even react to anything.

Some say all life has capacity to size up the prevailing or future challenges of survival and do something called, "evolve" to fit better and survive.

Others say everything was designed and blueprinted "up front" by a supreme universal designer.

Some say it is irrelevant which it is, and who knows, perhaps there are other possibilities?

The fact remains, there are trees and they have unique attributes across much specie, they all have very clever means of propagating themselves and they all have an undeniable will to survive. Since they cannot even see, hear, run away, migrate or even swat bugs or scratch an itch, they have my admiration. Even worse for them, they are useful for tools, implements, furnishings, construction, fuel and as weapons. I would say trees have something very clever up their sleeve to be still around.

Given their challenges we would be long gone I suspect. With this in mind I propose an annual tree award.

If you think figuring out which glitzy Hollywood damsel should merit an award, think how you would nominate a particular tree for something. I expect we would need to develop tree talent categories. Best this… and best that… -- there are probably hundreds of potential tree merit categories to choose from.

The reward for winning in a category could be permanent inclusion on the protected specie list.

To start things rolling I would like to nominate the Mangrove for, "Best propagation strategy". The mangrove lives on the transition line of ocean and land often partly submerged. Although not cognizant of the fact, it has a particularly tough challenge in sowing its seeds. The seeds must get planted while the tide is out and establish quickly to begin anew. To do this, its seeds are unusual in that they germinate while still on the tree, sprouting seedlings that grow up to 30 cm (12 in) long. The seedlings are cigar-shaped and heavier at the root end than at the leafy end. The ideal planting of its offspring occurs when the tide is out and the heavy end of the long cylindrical seedpod plants itself securely into the soft mud below. Since dropping the seedpods at the exact moment is an "iffy" affair at best, the wily mangrove has compensated by provisioning three distinct seed types. The first and primary type is as described above. The other two seed types look the same but are subtly different having two other densities offering different flotation characteristics.

The second seed type, (if it encounters water), sinks midway to the bottom where it awaits transportation, through ocean currents, to new locations. The third seed configuration, (if it encounters water), floats on the surface waiting to be washed up on land in the immediate vicinity.

If you think the annual award and reward scheme for trees is good, let us make sure every single kind of tree wins an award in a category first time out. Once they are safe I expect it is decent to sit back and spend all the time in the world patting each other on the back for something we did.

Who knows? Do you?

"Whatever you pursue gains credibility... even undeserving things."