So I have ANOTHER question today. And THIS time I’m asking for YOUR input!
Lori Carlson from AS THE FATES WOULD HAVE IT just commented on my yesterday’s Damned if I know… post that her dad once held her up so she could carve her initials into a covered bridge. All the bells and whistles in my head went off when I read it. WHY, I wondered, do people feel the need to do that???
When my dad was stationed in Hawaii during WWII, he had a favorite tea house he frequented (which I’ve never been able to understand since he hated tea). Outside there was a small grove of palm trees, and in one he felt the need to carve his name. Thirty-some odd years later when he and mom finally made it back there, the first thing dad did was go looking for that tree. And yes, his initials were still there.
Now I’m a bit of a tree hugger, so I Googled some info about this whole carving thing and found that:
When someone carves letters and symbols into the bark of a tree, he or she is cutting into its vascular system, which transports water and food throughout the tree, Mosman said. As long as the cuts are not too deep and do not completely encircle the trunk, a tree will seal off the damaged section and heal itself. “The problem is if you were to cut that vascular system completely around the stem of a tree,’’ he said. “It could kill it.’’ Individual people carving their names, love signs, and other hieroglyphs all around a tree can kill it, too, from a “Swiss cheese kind of effect,’’ said Nathan Phillips, a professor at Boston University who studies tree physiology and ecosystems. That is especially a problem if the gouges are made too deep, he said. But, he added, trees “often show a tremendous amount of resilience. It’s kind of two sides of a coin.’’ (Boston.com)
That didn’t do much to make me feel better. A tree is still a living thing and I couldn’t help wondering if it hurt them!
There have been times I’ve wanted to leave my mark to commemorate an occasion. Not far from our family cabin is a rock on which I was sitting when I got my first kiss from a boy I liked — a lot! A few weeks later when my family was up there, I painted mine and Mike’s name and the big date on that sucker! It’s still there, 53 years later! It’s in the shade of a grove of Quakin’ Asps, but is a little faded. However, I bet folks hiking by there have wondered over the years who the heck these people WERE and WHY they put a bloomin’ date on that rock!. 😀
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When we were having our house built, Drollery and I slipped out here one night just after they poured the porch and scratched our names in the wet cement. The funny thing was, he spelled his wrong!!! LOL
So what is it about leaving our “mark” that is so essential to our “being?” Or do you think that’s an exaggeration?
If so, have a quick read of Sophie Hay’s fascinating post Scratching the Surface. Yes, people actually DO deface artifacts! (You can see the name T. Hogg better on her blog.) It was a fabulous post! Even in Mark Twain Cave and Jesse James’ hideout, there are names all over the place.
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So here are my questions to you today, my dear inquisitive buddies!
1. Have you ever carved your name into anything (or left graffiti on something, the modern-day version)?
2. What was it?
3. Why did you do it?
4. And are there OTHER ways we leave our mark?
MY inquisitive mind wants to know!!!
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Picture Credits:
names on tree — acreatorsworld.wordpress.com
porch — moi
column from the Temple at Soleb, Sudan — https://pompei79.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/scratching-the-surface/
Impromptu Promptlings 
I never carved my name in a tree as I, too, am a tree-hugger. That’s interesting about the vascular system of a tree. I didn’t know that, but intuitively must have known something like it. As far as leaving a mark, I prefer to do it in words rather than defacing something. I do remember carving our name in concrete the way you’ve done when we were kids — my dad’s idea — but I can’t think of another way I’ve done it. Great questions.
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I get very protective of trees. You, too?
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I’m guessing people do ‘that’ to say to those who follow “Look at me! I was here before you were!” And yet, what does the next person think?
On our travels, I’ve been saddened (sometimes to the point of being heartsick) by the number of beautiful majestic trees defaced by people from all over the world, tourists compelled to let everyone know not only that they were there, but where they came from.
Thousands of people letting me know they were there first and as the person who followed them, all I think is that they have NO respect for the wonder of nature. I’ve never carved my name on a tree, never felt the need to let anyone know that I passed that way before they did. I’ve only ever left my footprints behind and taken my photos and memories with me.
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I hear ya. Our friends went to Greece last year and were totally shocked at how people were not stopped from putting graffiti all over ruins. Some are fenced off now, but it didn’t happen until the damage was already done.
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I find this so sad.
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1. Have you ever carved your name into anything or left graffiti? Yes.
2 I defaced a political sign.
3 I felt helpless and hopeless about the direction we were headed in with this particular politician and he was overwhelmingly going to win and have another four years to make things even worse. I painted a Hitler mustache on his face and drew horns on his head!
4 I’m not so worried about leaving a mark behind once everyone i have loved has moved on to wherever we go. I would like people to smile and laugh as they remember me but truly feel my best gifts to the world are my children. They are my marks.
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I always love your answers, Shannon. They’re so real! We should turn you loose on THIS years politicians! 😀
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Remember, I’m in Canada. Our leader has great hair! 😂
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LMBO!!!
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1. Have you ever carved your name into anything (or left graffiti on something, the modern-day version)?
No. I wouldn’t do that to a tree. And thank you for your thoughts trees are living beings, and I DO believe that everything FEELS.
I never have left my name on anything (other than a post in a blog). I won’t even have my name carved into a grave stone.
2. What was it? SEE ABOVE ^^^
3. Why did you do it? Ditto ^^^
4. And are there OTHER ways we leave our mark?
I’d think a time capsule would be the way to let anyone know I was here. Leaving things buried, or maybe just somewhere (like a letterbox) that someone might come across it… oh, wait, that does remind me that I stamped a book – which I’m sure doesn’t count – with Quantum Hermit ‘mark.’ But anyway, a time capsule would give a better picture of who we are, and what we did, and wouldn’t hurt anything in the process.
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That’s a unique idea! You could do a post on that!!! 😀
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Never felt the urge to leave a mark EXCEPT when we were renovating our living room. We glued cork tiles on the walls so we would never have to paint it again. And before we did, we grafittied the whole wall with texta – TRH, me, his brothers, their wives…. it was so much fun !
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When my sister stripped the wallpaper off in the living room of their house (old) when they bought it, they found all kinds of writing under that. Isn’t that interesting!
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I think if anyone ever strips the cork tiles off our walls the plaster will come off too! TRH is very thorough when he renovates, lol 🙂 Probably just as well, as I seem to recall some of them were a tad, well, umm, X-rated, sort of…
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LMBO!!! Sounds like you had a great time!
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The cave art I was talking about: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/index.php
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Actually nope! That’s not the one I was thinking about. Interesting…
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yeah, there are several in France.. but only in that one cave did a crocked fingered artist leave his mark 🙂
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I agree with everyone here. I think we do it because we know our bodies are mortal and we want someone at some other time and place to know that yes, we did exist. That we were here. That our lives mattered in some small way. It’s a cry in the wind… can you see me? Will I be remembered? I think it is a basic human instinct to want to be remembered. Why else would a prehistoric artist with a crooked finger have left his hand prints all over a cave in France thousands of years ago, along side cave drawings of horses, wild cats, and bison? We want to be remembered.
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Oh! What an excellent example, Lori!!! I know the cave you’re talking about. Never thought about it in that light, however.
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When we scattered my mom’s ashes last year my eldest son tried to carve her name into the old wooden bench at the top of the hills where she loved – nearly cut his bloody finger off 😄 he ended up just writing her name in chalk – would have washed away very quickly but he obviously felt the need to leave a mark x
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That is so sweet and tender. He must have felt very strongly about doing that. Those pure emotions are so precious. We sure lose a lot of that as we get older.
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It was a very special day taking her back up the hills of hers, and our, childhood ❤ xx
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Never carved my name into anything,,,it’s just been written in the sand….I did surprise Jim with his initials tattooed on my neck ☺️
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You know if you ever get out this way and head over by the salt flats, you can write your names in the salt there and they will stay for years and years. People do it with rocks a lot, too.
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I’ll have to put that on my bucket list!!!! 😄
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I don’t think I have ever carved my name for posterity, but I etched the name ‘I love Frankie’ just once, on an old door. I did it so that every time I went back I would see his name, and also so that everyone who passed by would know that someone out there loved somebody called Frankie.
I expect the door ended up in landfill, or on a bonfire when they knocked the building down…
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So one way or the other your love returned to the earth to fertilize and grow something beautiful!
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It hadn’t occurred to me – what a beautiful thought 🙂
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I believe there are two strands of impulse that drives an individual or individuals to do so. One is to perform an act in the here-and-now to commemorate a moment in time that is special, whether it occurred during one day or like your father for over a period of time. The second is the desire to leave a permanent reminder that will last over time, which is a facet that gives the particular act of commemorating a greater significance.
This desire for permanence is an illusion. All things are impermanent, all things are transitory. And this includes ourselves. And it this conscious / subconscious fear of our own death, of our own transitory nature that compels to find ways that says we will live on. It is why so many get caught up in the notion of, say, the family legacy.
It is a difficult practice, and we tend to not want to acknowledge not only our own mortality, but also those of our loved ones, but it is better to commemorate with those things that are not intended to last. For it is not the act that matters, but the intentions and feelings behind the act at that moment, in that place. So write two names with a heart on the sand on the beach, the tide come in and wash it away. It doesn’t matter that writing is washed away, they were just marks in the sand. What remains (at least one hopes so) are the feelings and intentions after one walks away from the beach.
There is maybe a certain laziness in this matter. Rather than commemorating with something less permanent and, thus, requiring the intentional act of commemorating again and again, we seek to do it once and let that be that. It is like the person ten or twenty years later telling their spouse that they don’t have to go around saying things like “I love you” because he or she said “I do” at the marriage ceremony and that should be enough.
Albert Camus wrote in effect that no particular work of art is necessary for society to become a better place. If the Mona Lisa had never been painted, we would not be doomed to a dystopia. What society does need is for the artist to engage in the creative activity. What ultimately comes from that activity may or may not be of cultural significance, but it is the impact on the individual(s) engaging in the creative process struggling to be authentic as possible that is absolutely necessary for just and humane society.
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This desire for permanence is an illusion. Wow… You and Plato could be twins! 🙂 “What remains (at least one hopes so) are the feelings and intentions after one walks away from the beach.” That is so beautiful, Douglas. And I totally get it. Thank you for your heartfelt comment. Means a lot.
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my pleasure 🙂
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We do it because we can’t bear the thought that we are mortal and one day there will be nothing left
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A lot of people look at it that way, I bet. I believe there will always be something of us somewhere. We’re made out of energy and energy can’t be destroyed. So when we die I believe some part of us hangs around somewhere. 😀 Maybe we get “do overs?”
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One chance, one life..make it count. That’s at least what I believe. Why a do over, if we live it to the fullest and remember the values we were raised with? As for the energy, I think we are just a small “toot” in the universe 🙂
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May be. But MY question has been for a long time now, what happens to OUR energy when we jettison these old bodies? It doesn’t disappear. Where does it go? Does the energy for a dozen of us gather together to make the energy for a new elephant, for example? Really. I’m curious from a scientific pov.
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You need to read The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Green
Rather than looking at it in terms of energy in a human body it’s best to think of it as how much energy a human body needs, it’s roughly the same as a standard US lightbulb. So is it safe to think of the energy contained in a human only exist because it is constantly refueled be eating. similar to the way an automobile only produces energy by refueling.
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Very interesting! Sounds hard to understand, however.
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In Ireland, where we adopted her from these “Traditional” Farms my beloved Cross Border Collie “Daisy” was born, and where we first took her for a walk and sat with her and fed her (wrong I know) chocolate Leprechauns by this Tree and carved her name way down low. I too am a “Tree Hugger” can never resist it.
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You probably haven’t been back to see if it’s still there, have you?
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Yes we returned the following year and and it was still there.
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1. Have you ever carved your name into anything (or left graffiti on something, the modern-day version)?
Yep.
2. What was it?
When Chuck and I had the cement poured for part of the sidewalk in front of the house we etched our names into it. Before it dried.
3. Why did you do it?
Because it was our home and something we did together.
4. And are there OTHER ways we leave our mark?
We leave marks in so many ways. Both physically and mentally. Giving someone a smile can leave a mark. A few harsh words can leave a mark. Our whole lives we leave marks on people and things.
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“We leave marks in so many ways. Both physically and mentally. Giving someone a smile can leave a mark. A few harsh words can leave a mark. Our whole lives we leave marks on people and things.” THAT is such an awesome comment! Well said!
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I carve my name on eternity by writing books.
Why do we do it? – To show we’ve lived – to be understood – to leave our mark!
When you look at me
From your own century
I may seem to be
Strange archeology
But when the winds blow
From this direction
You may sense me there
In your reflection
I think I feel you
But I will never know
As the swallows leave
And the children grow
I wanted to live forever
The same is you will too
I wanted to live forever
And everybody knew
When I caught you there
In tomorrows mirror
I thought felt you
Jump out of my skin
Throwing oil into
My blazing memories
Filling empty footsteps
I was standing in
I wanted to live forever
The same as you will too
I wanted to live forever
And everybody knew
As the falling rain
Of the northern jungle
Hanging droplets on the leaves
Bombards my brain
I hear you
Across the room
A sea of daffodils spring into bloom
You are the mist
The frost across my window pane
And again
She moves her body
And her whispers weave
And the world spins
And tells me that I’ll never want to leave
As I think of you
From this dark century
I will always be
With generosity
That we both may share
The hope in hearing
That we’re not just
Spirits disappearing
Roy Harper – Hope Lyrics
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Great song lyrics to illustrate that point! Is it fear that makes us want to live forever? (I think Queen had some lyrics like that in one of the songs they did for The Highlander TV series…)
(Btw, your stuff has disappeared from my Reader again unless you haven’t written much lately? This is the third time. But you’re still on my list.)
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