By Milton Siegele
I have stood here enduringly for years. I have patiently grown. I have steadily gotten stronger. I have steadfastly endured. I have endured considerable pain and arduous hardship, but never, ever uttered a single word or shed a tear. Because that's what trees do. They endure, dammit! They endure! And that may be the reason I exist, to endure, and to exemplify, in this one small space, what it means to endure, and how to endure, in stoic, silent strength, so that other trees might know. After all, I am but a tree.