I work with children most days and adults in different capacities and often do team building and cultural diversity activities and exercises as "ice breakers." I have found that the more things folks learn that they have in common, the more easily it is to build trust--so I often get folks to stand in circles or get a partner and talk about their favorite things.
When it comes to favorite color, I find that most people say blue or green or a shade of one or the other--mine being lime green and Mediterranean blue--of course many little girls do still say "pink and purple" but you'll have that. When they talk about their favorite flowers, most choose wild flowers like daisies, roses, sunflowers. But when it comes to trees? People tend to really get more specific and creative.
Kids (of all religions) often shout out "Christmas trees!" and smile. They don't know if they are pine or spruce or balsam firs, they just like the lights and presents...New Americans often say "oak" or describe the trees with the acorns or ones with color (the sugar maples.) Some New Americans have told me "ones you can climb." I've never heard an adult say that they preferred Christmas trees to any other--probably because they have had to deal with the purchase, hauling, setting up, light stringing, decorating, watering, clean up and disposal of said trees. They, like me, pick hardwoods--maple, oak, beech or birch---because we think about the beauty of the tree, yes, but the value of it once it is chopped down, as well. We think about our picture frames, mirrors, bedsteads, our dining room tables, hardwood floors, the post and beam construction of our summer homes...covered bridges...
It's not true that my favorite trees are Christmas trees, although I do love the fragrance as much as the next person. I love paper birch trees and beeches. Paper birches because they "breathe" and often look as if they have faces on them...and they are practical in a wilderness survival situation--bark burns even when wet. Beeches look JUST like strong muscular arms being pushed out of the soil into the forest air.They give us beech nuts. Their leaves turn a vibrant gold in autumn. And I like that look.
Forest trees that grow in clumps cling to one another's roots and some of them have root systems that push entire trees up and out and form an actual GROVE. In fact the largest living organism on Earth is a grove of aspens in California. There is nothing in this world like walking along a wooded path of a forest lined with beeches and birches in mid-August and having to don a sweater because it is so cool and shady and welcoming.
Trees are also the tallest of all living things and some of the oldest. They give us oxygen, shade, places for animals and insects to live and thrive in, climb...I could go on and on. Trees. They are my favorites.
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