To Have and To Have Not

I have passed these palms on my way home to visit my family a million times. These two palm trees just stand there side by side, eloquent in their own way, in the middle of an open field bordering a busy road. They offer up a host of metaphors and thoughts, some very funny and appealing to my sense of whimsy; some are more sober.

Sometimes they make me laugh because they remind me of a couple of gaudy, cartoon-style palm trees getting ready to go out on the town. I can imagine a woman palm with her big hair, carrying a purse and wearing string of pearls and cat eye glasses and a short, bald man palm wearing a 70's leisure suit. It cracks me up.

Other times, I think about the story of the Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and I wonder which little boy benefited from the palms of the tree. I wonder how these trees ended up in the middle of this field and why they were preserved. Was it a farmer with a sense of humor? Or maybe there was something more to it. I keep driving by expecting to see palms sprouting back on the one tree. Hasn't happened yet and I doubt it will. Some things, once lost, cannot be replaced. Grace is to stand tall and proud despite that fact.