Published In The Great North Arrow, September 1, 2024: Take A Chance

Take A Chance

- jim Young

“Living with fear stops us taking risks, and if you don’t go out on the branch, you’re never going to get the best fruit.” - Sarah Parish

As I sat in my hot tub I looked up to see the branch of our cherry birch tree stretched out above. Beyond the leaves on the tree was a blue sky dotted with small white clouds and I thought of the Louis Armstrong song, “I see trees of green… I see skies of blue and clouds of white…” and “I think to myself what a wonderful world.”

But just 8 years ago, the tree from which this branch extended wasn’t so popular. In 2016, less than a month after we had our hot tub installed, this very same tree lost a branch that fell and punctured the vinyl on our brand new hot tub cover.

No one wants to see such an expensive toy patched with duct tape. It’s like getting the first ding on a new vehicle. You know it’s going to happen one day, but you never want that day to be today. 

And like the village people that pursue the monster with torches and pitchforks, the general consensus of family and friends was to have the cherry birch tree cut down to prevent another mishap.

There are a couple of adages that come into play here. “Once bitten, twice shy” supports the idea of cutting the tree to prevent future mishaps. On the other hand, “lightning never strikes twice,” and although we know lightning sometimes does strike twice, the adage still lends to the idea that a similar occurrence is highly unlikely.

My thought on the subject was, “Do 2 duct tape patches really look any worse on the cover than 1 duct tape patch?”

Since that time we have replaced the original hot tub cover due to normal wear and tear and its replacement is almost due to be replaced again simply as a result of time. There have been no subsequent attacks from our cherry birch tree - yet.

Tonight as I marvelled at the beauty of the tree branch against the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds, I think I made the right decision to let the tree stand all those years ago. 

Lightning may one day strike our cherry birch tree and bring it crashing down causing more than superficial damage to our hot tub. Strong winds that blow lonely, might blow it on the roof of our house creating havoc on our sunroom as well.

But sometimes you just gotta take a chance in life and hope for the best.

- 30 -