Leslie's BlogExplaining Evil to a Brownie troop
Author’s note: This is a column in progress; below are the introductory paragraphs.
How do you explain the evil side of human nature to ten little Brownies who are touring Austin for an outing badge? That was one of the questions facing the two troop leaders and myself recently when we took a gaggle of third-graders, my eight-year-old daughter among them, to tour four Austin landmarks on a golden Indian summer afternoon. The plan was to introduce the girls to Treaty Oak, the State Capital, Littlefield Fountain at UT, and end with a frozen custard at Sandy’s on Barton Springs Road.
Walking up to our first stop, Treaty Oak, the 500-year-old Southern live oak, we stood beneath the towering tree, its limbs stretching high as if to brush against the lapis blue sky, while a skirt of branches spread heavily to the ground, curving up into a lace of leaves in deep shade. The girls peered up and up, marveling at its size. A woman in the crowd spontaneously walked up and began to read the monument marker, describing to us how it was part of the council of oaks, a circle of trees that served as a spiritual meeting place for Native Americans hundreds of years ago. She also told the girls how the tree had been poisoned in 1989. Ten little heads swiveled back to us as the bewildered girls asked why? Why would anyone try to kill such a beautiful tree with branches to swing from and acorns to hunt underneath a rustling carpet of leaves?