I have always understood the term “Tree Hugger” to be a derogatory term, it refers to passionate environmentalists who do not believe trees should be damaged or cut down. On TV, people make fun of “Tree Huggers” all the time, they are considered weird and loopy. I’ve never thought poorly of tree lovers, or spoken badly about them, but I can’t say I ever thought of myself in that way either.

I almost never am at ease on the extreme end of movements, life is filled with gray, black-and-white people make me nervous.

I married a variety of Tree Hugger. Maria doesn’t object to cutting all trees down, I don’t think (I’m not certain about this) but she loves trees, draws and weaves them into her art, and on more than one occasion, hugs them. She pays close attention to them, they are important to her. She rarely hugs a tree in front of me, it usually happens when she is out walking in the woods with Fate.

I think she was afraid I might scoff at her. Perhaps at one time, I might have.

This morning, we were walking and Maria went up to a big and beautiful old tree and said she wanted to hug it. She didn’t want me photographing it, she was afraid, I could see, that I might make fun of her. I was pleased she was willing to do it in front of me but I had to reassure her that I wouldn’t mock her.  Actually, I thought it was a very beautiful thing to see. This tree is full of life and memory, a beautiful thing.

I love her for her somewhat witchy love of nature.

I watched while she went up to the tree and Fate stood by. I asked her if she minded if I hugged it, and somewhat surprised, she said sure. I went and hugged the tree. I felt a great rush of feeling and affection for this big and beautiful thing, reaching up to the sky, so rich in history and place. So full of life. I  wrapped my arms around this tree, held it tightly, closed my eyes.

I have come to understand that in our topsy-turvy world, we often deride the very people we ought to be listening too, while we put idiots and peckerheads and potbangers on television and in Congress and public offices all of the time. Why, I wonder, do we do this? The raving lunatics get to run for President, the people who love trees scrounge for food.

Maria and I had a discussion after lunch about whether we really are pure Tree Huggers. We both have hugged trees now – today was my first, but not the last – but we do believe some trees need to be harvested for wood and other uses. So I guess we are not literally Tree Huggers, except that we have taken recently to hugging trees.

Labels can be traps.

Still, this reminds me once more to be careful about the people our greedy and angry culture trivializes. The Tree Huggers are the people who ought to be on television, the so-called sane and rational ones telling us what to think and believe are destroying the world.

If felt great to hug the tree, warm and I could feel this amazing energy emanating from it, this wonderful and proud old thing. I felt nourished and enriched. I walked up the slope to Maria and she gave me a big hug. “I am a Tree Hugger now,” I said, and proud of it.