My Search: Axis Mundi

     My search for the center of the world was long and tedious. I wanted answers, I wanted to know what connected heaven to earth. Maybe I should have listened to Pindar when he stated: "The craziest type of people are those who scorn what they have around theme and look elsewhere/vainly searching for what cannot exist" (59). But I am stubborn, I needed answers and here is how it went down.
     It took many hours of paperwork, but I was finally ready. I was ready to present my proposal to the city of Bozeman. In order to find the center, to find what connected the earth to heaven, I must learn more about the belly button, I must learn more about trees. My proposal--although shot down multiple times--was to dig. I wanted to see what was under the surface of the ground. Where did the roots go? What I found was astonishing.

     The city let me use this Hitachi. It was fun figuring out how to use it, tearing up the layers of pavement and earth to get to what was really important, the roots. I have been led to believe that the roots of a tree extend far enough into the earth to achieve stability and nourishment. But what I did not know is that they reach much farther than that. I dug day and night for seven nights straight, I did not sleep, I did not eat, there was no need. It was as if none of it mattered. I had a goal in mind, nothing would stop me from getting to the center of things. Almost nothing. After seven days of digging and three Hitachi excavators later, the city of Bozeman shut my project down. Yet in my vain search for what cannot exist, I found precisely what I was looking for. The roots did not stop, the farther I dug, the more of them I would find. The tree on the surface of the earth reaches to heaven while the roots continue on forever. They are what holds the earth together. I finally found my answer, or did I? I would like to think so. Trees cannot live without their roots, similarly, people cannot live without roots either. As we follow the roots of a tree, they weave in and out of one another until they reach the center, or beginning. The same goes for man, the farther we follow the roots of man, the more we realize man began in the same place. The center.

     I was so happy to find the answers to my questions, I decided to hug the tree, roots and all. My next adventure, finding the tallest tree on earth and climbing it, to see if it truly connects earth to heaven. Wish me luck!