The Meaning of Bonsai

摘要

I have been a volunteer at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. to help with the National Bonsai Collection for one day a week over the past thirteen years. Yesterday I helped repot a 400 year old tree, tenderly cared for by other people just like me for all of these centuries from the time it was a mere seed to today. A farewell party was held at Janet Lanman's home for our curator Jack Sustic some time ago and there were 30 of us there—curators, two interns, volunteers and spouses. Among those attending were two women who had been born and raised in Japan, two others born and raised in Korea, a Peruvian with his American wife, a Jewish couple, two young single ladies, Barry, an ebony skinned man from Senegal who worked as a guard at the Arboretum and his Afro-American wife, Barbara. One of the single ladies had spent three years of her life in a primitive village in Senegal, sleeping on dirt floors while teaching modern agriculture to African farmers.