FredL

I have been sitting here for the last five minutes gazing at Walter's "Cookie Cutter" Elm. I have been trying not to like it, realizing that two do so marks me as hopelessly not-in -the-know, unsophisticated and naive. Despite my best efforts, I find myself filled with a wonderful sense of peace and tranquility, the wonder of nature and the marvel of its simple beauty. Well, not so simple at all, really.

I guess the forest behind my house here in the Ozarks is filled with "Cookie Cutter" forest trees. Yet, to me, each is very much an individual. Each is worthy of having its beauty marveled at.

When I was young, I found it difficult to tell Asian people apart. I was so struck by their apparent similarity that, to my unfamiliar eye, they truly "all looked alike to me". Now, I find that my Asian wife is truly very much an individual and very different from her, well, our, many Asian friends. As they all differ profoundly, one from another. (My wife tells me that, as a child, she had the same problem with Americans!)

Maybe, I just haven't looked at enough Bonsai. I find them all to be quite different, though many, many of them have been developed following the same design precepts. I am constantly delighted by the profound differences that I see even in year old seedlings from the same parent tree. I guess I need a more sophisticated eye to see the boring similarity that I now know they surely must all possess.

Either that or might I wonder whether there are, perhaps, subtlely different rules to art that involves living beings rather than the lifeless materials used by other types of artists?

Woops!!! Don't want to go there! I surely don't want to get into the whole thing about Bonsai having souls, trees suffering as the result of pruning and wiring and all that nonsense!!!

Best regards, Fred