If You Were a Tree...
A lesson in acceptance.
Photo by Gilly Stewart on Unsplash
“If I was a what?”
Under normal circumstances, job interviews can be nerve-wracking.
They can be especially tense when an interviewer tries to be clever by asking a gotcha question.
One interview question in particular sticks in my memory.
“If you were a tree, Mr. Marlow, what kind of tree would you be?”
My answer is lost to the shadows of memory though it must have been satisfactory as they offered me the job.
While asking such a question in an interview might be of dubious value, there may be some merit in considering the question in our Ikigai journey.
Ram Dass takes this idea a step further by turning people into trees…
“…when you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever.
And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”―Ram Dass1
If I were to answer the tree question today, I might share about the scar of a broken branch from a disappointment. Or the growth that came from a blessed season of good and nurturing things in my life.
Perhaps relay how events and circumstances have shaped me and made me the tree I am today—going into detail right down to the rings deep inside.
It would be a demonstration of acceptance and acknowledgment of life as it unfolded—representing the most accurate and least judgmental portrayal of me at my essence.
And I probably wouldn’t get the job.
Then again, a tree wouldn’t care.
If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
https://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-on-self-judgement/
Palm tree because of their flexibility in storms, shade for many and beauty if taken care of well. All trees have their lessons as do people!
I wouldn't have to think to answer that question, for many reasons I would surely be an olive tree. There is something special about them.