The Man Who Planted Trees

Today in class we saw a narrative true story video called "The Man Who Planted Trees" written by Jean Giono. The story is a bout a man who's been walking for a while until he come upon an empty treeless valley where there is no trace of any kind of civilization except for the remains of old buildings of small towns that eventually died off due to the harsh environment, resulting in the bitterness of the people to only want to help themselves even at the cost of everything else around them. The narrator is thirsty but has no water until he is saved by Shepherd who takes him to a well feeding his thirst. The Shepherd houses the unknown man and at night the man watches as the Shepherd carefully selects perfect acorns and bags them up not stating what they are for. The next day the man follows the Shepherd and realizes that he is planting the acorns to grow trees in the barren land, which was dieing in need of trees and that the Shepherd felt he needed to solve that problem. The Shepherd knows that not all his seeds will grow, only a portion, but he hopes to grow so much that his efforts now would only seem like a drop in the ocean. The man leaves but every year continues to visit the Shepherd, now turned Bee Keeper, who continues to plant and tend to his trees. The few seeds planted everyday have eventually turned into a beautiful forest that no one is sure how it came about but environmentalist place a governmental protection act over it, hoping to protect its marvel and beauty.

This story shows something that we've been talking about throughout the entire semester, which is that every single has person has the potential to bring about change. In the story the Shepherd single handedly created a forest to save the land. He shows that if one person has an idea on how they can do their part to protect or save the environment, all they need to do is take action. No deed is useless. One person is able to make a change. Most of the time that is not the mentality people have. The believe that change can only happen if everyone does it and if that's not the case then what's the point. The point is that one person is better than none. One person trying to make a difference is one less person killing the environment. Not only is that the case but also one person doing his or her part also bring inspiration. By being headstrong and doing what you feel is right and doing your part to save the environment, others notice and reciprocate and do the same. They are inspired by seeing that if one person can try to make a difference, then why can't I? Why can't I be apart of the change for the better? The answer is that anyone can be apart of the better. Just take the iniative and do your part to save the world.