The Apple Tree Question
Here is one of my favourite quotes about hope:
Even if I knew that the world was to end tomorrow, I'd still plant my apple tree today.
The apple tree question goes like this:
If you knew the world would end tomorrow, what would you still begin today?
Perhaps you'd still learn a few words in a foreign language or take a fresh stab at the maths problem you haven't cracked yet. Maybe you'd build a table or learn how to make a paper crane. Perhaps you'd write a song or a poem. You might start a book or take the first steps to learn how to bake a really good cake.
Maybe you'd set out to understand your partner or your kid better and learn to let them know that you love them in a way they can understand. Maybe you'd mend an old fence or start weeding the flower bed in the backyard.
Maybe you'd learn something.
Maybe you'd make something.
If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I'd still write words for a new song. I'd still sing.
That's all.
The list of things seems pretty small. Just a song. It seems like nothing. And it seems like it is something barely worth doing when the world is ending.
And yet. Here I am. With my apple tree that took me years to find. All the while, it was growing right there in my back yard.
The world won't fall apart tomorrow. True. But somehow, that makes the absence of songs in my life even more idiotic. Why would I wait for the end of the world if I can write words now?
Why wait until the last day if I can sing today?
The day I realised that "Why wait until the last day?" is not a question I can answer with anything except utter horse manure was the day I started to write and sing in earnest again. I planted my apple tree.
If the world ended tomorrow, I'd still water it today.
What is your apple tree?
Don't you think it's time to plant it?
