Trials Make Us Good Timber

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shotslot/8147080749/

Interesting article here "When Trouble Comes" about trees that grew in the Biosphere dome experiment. New trees planted in the protected atmosphere grew rapidly but toppled over before they could reach their height and reproduce. Adding to the tragedy was the final failure, the wood was too soft to be useful. Without the wind to buffet them, the trees did not develop the strength to stand tall with strong, sturdy trunks and branches. So it goes with men and women. This poem says it perfectly.

Good Timber

by Doug Malloch

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out on the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived an died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease.

The stronger wind, the stronger trees,

The further sky the greater length,

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and man good timbers grow

Where thickest lies the forest growth,

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.