extraction

This seems like unnecessary effort.

This tree is clearly interested in remaining exactly where it has been for several hundred years.

This living organism has grown up in this spot, where it is comfortable, and where it has the appropriate mix of sunshine and shade, in this spot, where it can grow to immense, immovable proportions. 

“This is all true,” he says, “But even with immense immovable proportions, you can be chipped at, hacked at, and nicked until you topple.”

This tree has deep roots. 

This tree is an integral part of the landscape, where it provides shade for smaller trees and shrubs and bushes, in this landscape, where it provides a home for birds and squirrels. 

“This tree is in there far,” he says, “But even though it is deep, and it provides life, it also destroys, and it blocks, and it obstructs progress.

This tree is a metaphor.

This tree is the metaphor of a first year creative writing student. 

This tree is a memory and a person and a belief that has grown a home for itself in a place where it should not be. 

“This tree,” he says, “is just a tree, and men can move trees.”