Lessons from Trees: The Sycamore Tree
We planted a sycamore tree in our front yard right after our house was completed. Over the years it has grown into a giant, with wide spreading branches and huge leaves that shade our entire front yard. I love how this tree looks in the summer. I love how the cooling shade it provides. But every fall, when other trees drop their leaves quickly, the sycamore hangs on, clinging to its leaves until well past the time for snow to start falling.
Those big leaves can hold a lot of snow—enough to weigh down the branches and put them in danger. In fact, if you look into my sycamore tree once the leaves are finally gone, you can see the ragged breaks where branches have broken off over the years.
The sycamore tree teaches an important lesson: Clinging on too long to some things can potentially be dangerous. In fact, there are several historical examples that show what can happen when we hold on too long.
In the early 18th century, Austrian composer Cristoph Gluck led a movement to make changes to opera that, among other things, would make it more appealing to the middle class. Most Italian composers and performers balked at the idea, clinging to the old style. The Italians, who created opera in the first place, lost their position as the leaders in opera composition to the Austrians for the next several decades.
In the late 1960’s, Japanese watch company Seiko released the first wristwatch with quartz timing. The Swiss, who up to that point were known to produce the most accurate timepieces in the world, continued to cling to the mechanical timing that made them famous. The result was disastrous. Between 1974 and 1980 their export of watches dropped by fifty percent. In the early 1970’s there were an estimated 1600 Swiss watchmaking companies, but by 1984 there were only 600.
In more recent years we have witnessed the result of clinging. Blockbuster Video clung to the idea of video rentals from a store and went bankrupt. Amazon changed the way we shop, and many companies that clung to a brick-and-mortar model eventually closed their doors permanently.
I can think of many times when I held on too long. Sometimes that choice didn’t hurt me, but it did limit me. For example, I held on to an old phone because I was afraid of the learning curve the new technology might entail. Holding onto an unhealthy relationship, however, did create a great deal of emotional pain.
Clinging too long can hurt, but even with that pain we can learn and grow. Even though my sycamore has been damaged many times, it has always recovered. The Italians eventually reclaimed their position in the world of Opera. The Swiss released the “Swatch,” an inexpensive quartz timepiece, that turned into a world-wide phenomenon in the late 1980’s.
Letting go and moving on is hard, but remember this: With every winter there is the promise of spring.
