Alice Waters claims that reading The Man Who Planted Trees changed her life. Since I
hold Waters synonymous with organic
food, farmers' markets and eating local, I had to find out more
about the book by Jean Giono that was first published in 1953. It's a
very short, yet powerful story (nine pages in PDF format here) and for years, people believed
that Elzeard Bouffier was a real person who single-handedly cultivated
an entire forest in France.
In 1957, Jean Giono felt that an
explanation was needed and wrote a letter to an official of a township
in France:
He went on to say that the story had
been translated into several different languages and distributed
freely. The book was a success, made Giono no money, yet he regarded it
to be his greatest achievement. In 1987, the story was retold in a
thirty minute movie that won an Oscar for Best
Animated Short Film.
What fascinates me about Giono, his
character Bouffier and Alice Waters, is passion. I admire their
one-pointed attention. They are seized by a desire, find a way to
express it and do it consistently. Their visible marks on the world may not even be attributed to
them but somewhere along the way they inspire one other person,
followed by another then followed by exponential patterns of growth.
Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan woman who founded the Green Belt Movement that has been responsible for
planting over 30 million trees since 1977. She won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 2004. Alice Waters and her Chez Panisse Foundation started The Edible Schoolyard, a one-acre garden along with
a kitchen classroom at a school in Berkeley, California in 1995. Today
there are Edible Schoolyard affiliates and sister programs all over the
country. All of these people have made visible
marks by planting one seed at a time.
Mother Teresa
said, "If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." Imagine
if every human being discovered and took hold of their passion and if the idea that directs it is one of
unqualified generosity, what a difference that would make in the
world. Imagine only a hundred, or even...just one. One person with
passion and persistence, like the man who planted trees.
Photo: Hoosier National Forest
Sources: Whole Living Magazine, June
2010: The Whole Truth, Alice
Waters, page 132. Wikipedia.com, The Man Who Planted Trees.