Just One Man (Connections, Part 2)

Some years ago, I came upon a charming narration that tells of the wonder of interconnectedness. The story is called "The Man Who Planted Trees." Written by an Italian-French author named Jean Giono, it was originally published in Vogue Magazine in 1954 as "The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness." I found it in a small book published by Chelsea Green Publishing Co. in 1985, after I heard the story told orally and was deeply moved by it.

Giono tells of hiking through a desolate portion of Provence, so desert-like that he could find no water for over a day. The few tiny hamlets he passed were abandoned and crumbling.

Then he met a lone shepherd, who gave Giono water and welcomed him into his home. In the evening, the author watched with curiosity as his host sorted through a bag of acorns, culling out those that were rotten or broken or too small. The shepherd put one hundred sound acorns to soak in a pail of water. And this, Giono tells, was his first meeting with the man who planted trees.

Giono returned to see his friend periodically over the next several decades, and each time he found the area more and more transformed. Replacing the sparse wild lavender were forests of sturdy trees -- oaks in many places, but also beech trees and birches. Stream beds, formerly dried up, flowed once more with fresh, sweet water. Prosperous farms also greened the former desert landscape. As Giono puts it, "Everything had changed. Even the air."

Abandoned villages were repopulated with many times the number of the original inhabitants. And, the author notes, these people were happy. In his story, Giono estimates that some 10,000 people had been blessed by the man who planted trees.

Only a tale, imagined by Jean Giono? Perhaps, but not an outlandish fantasy. This narrative points once again to the very real, miraculous network of all life, and to the power of a single, simple man with a clear intention.

Toward the end of his account, Giono states: "When you remembered that all this had sprung from the hands and the soul of one man, without technical resources, you understood that men could be as effectual as God in other realms than that of destruction."

This is a story, too, of resurrection. Happy Easter, happy spring -- a season of eternal hope!


Note: One last change! I will be in Arizona for the next 12 days at a special Easter workshop, so there will be no post next Wednesday. See you in two weeks!