Lahaina's Banyan Tree

With all the destruction and loss of human life we’ve seen from the Hawaiian fires, it was a tree that finally sent me to the fetal position. It was one tree in particular—the 150-year-old banyan tree in Lahaina, which is somehow still standing with some live tissue in its cambium (whatever that is). There is a man who loves the tree and has taken care of it for years who is now by its side, tossing fertilizer and washing it down with water; he will do so for several months, until enough time has passed to see if the tree has the strength to come back or if the damage is just too much to bear. All the leaves are gone, and it looks so… dark.

More than a hundred people have died, hundreds more are still missing, and thousands of displaced humans have been stunned by the sudden losses they have suffered. But it’s this tree that slays me.

What does that say about me?

I am the same with the images of animals that I see on Facebook and TikTok. The ones who have been abused by my fellow humans. I feel a searing pain that forces me to look away from these helpless animals who don’t seem to cry out in pain and rage like I would, but instead sit there in silence and hurt, seeming to wonder why the humans they wanted to love would treat them this way. The animals are the ones that get me, sometimes to the point that I think about shutting down my accounts in order to stop being confronted with them in my feed.

I ask myself why the suffering of my fellow man is less painful to me than that of a tree, or of animals. Is it because they would be fine, but for the abuses of my species? We humans who spoil their environment in ways that might already be irreversible? Who destroy their families, murdering their parents for their tusks or so their heads can hang as macabre trophies on someone’s wall? Is that why they seem to matter more to me than the guy shot on the street for no reason? Or could it be because of my shame at sharing DNA with those who would do such things?

They say we will know the fate of the Lahaina tree in about three months. What we want is to see a few new leaves emerge, which would indicate that it has a future. Put out a good thought if you can; and in the meantime, let’s really ask ourselves what our responsibility is to all living things threatened by our shocking, hubristic abuse of the environment that we all share, but only we can save.