Father Richard Rohr teaches that on an individual and societal basis, “The way we do one thing is the way we do everything.”  Today we will explore this statement through the lens of our society’s treatment of trees.  We all know they are alive, vital to our existence and beautiful, yet as a people, we have no issue treating them as mere objects, ornaments and nuisances – things to be cut, killed and grown as we see fit.  In many ways, we treat their livelihood like they are invisibly hiding in plain sight.  Drawing from recent research on the social nature of trees, how they grow and interconnect, we see there is much more going on in their existence than we thought.  With these understandings in hand, as a community that values and recognizes life in all forms, how will we respond, and what does this say about our society’s treatment of human lives?