All the Ways to See a Tree

This photograph has been more divisive than any other I've taken.

I love it. I can’t look at it without giggling a little, or at least smiling. I see a big-time opera singer, or maybe just a wannabe, puffed up and singing his heart out. He thinks of himself as Pavarotti and wants everyone else to think of him that way, too. It reminds me of the silliness of life.

My son says the picture scares him. He sees someone screaming in terror as an axe murderer bursts into the room. He can’t figure out how I see it as a happy picture, because to him, it’s horrifying.

My husband says the photo reminds him of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” Rather than finding it scary, though, I think he’s a bit offended by it. It takes something that should be realistic—a tree—and turns it into something it was never meant to be.

In this strange little photograph, I see a picture of the reasons it’s so hard for people to get along with each other. If three people can look at the same image and see three completely different things, how could we help but clash over bigger, less well-defined issues?

Each of us can only see an issue from the perspective we bring to it. I have always loved fantasy and magic and happy endings, so that’s what I see. My son likes his fantasy a bit darker, so that’s what he sees. My husband prefers realism, so the whole idea of this picture bothers him.

However.

Even though I will never see this tree screaming, I can understand and accept and appreciate that my son does. Even though I’d hate for all my fiction to be about things that could have happened, I can understand and accept and appreciate that my husband prefers it that way.

This is how humans get along with each other. This is how it’s possible to form connections and relationships and communities. We have to be able to understand and accept and appreciate that other people see things differently, and that’s ok.

The internet has made it too easy for each of us to seek out others who believe the same things we do. We band together in little groups and mock those who think differently. We moan about how horrible life will be if  people with different beliefs get their way. We strengthen our positions by finding others who approve of them. We create a feeling of belonging even while the distances between groups grow from cracks to canyons.

The results are fear and hatred, division and a splintering country.

It makes me sad to get on Facebook most days. It doesn’t matter what the current hot button issue is—I’ll inevitably see half my friends spewing hatred disguised as sarcasm from one side, while the other half does the same from their own perspective. I want to say, “Look, this isn’t helping, just stop,” but I know that either side would only see that as support for the opposition.

It’s probably too late to say we should all just get along. But then, what’s our other alternative?