Tripp’s Tree
Tripp noticed a tree in his front yard becoming quite huge. He said to himself, “That’s not so bad, I can deal with a big tree.”
A few weeks later, Tripp’s wife noticed the size of the tree and lack of soil for its roots, so she suggested that he trim it. Tripp said, “I’m no good at trimming trees—just leave it!”
Several months later, Tripp’s children tried to warn him of its size and how unstable the tree had become. Tripp replied, “What do you know about trees?”
A few years passed, then Tripp’s neighbor approached him about the tree. Tripp agreed something needed to be done, but he did not want to cut it as he was afraid to offend the birds, the squirrels, and others that had grown accustomed to the tree as it was. Once again, Tripp refused to deal with the tree.
After a series of thunderstorms and heavy winds, the tree fell on Tripp’s house, nearly demolishing his family’s home! Many of their belongings were also destroyed.
So Tripp decided to move to a new house and leave everything else behind. This time he would look for a piece of land with no potential for plant life.