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20100422

Oldest Tree in the World

Here it is. I wonder if it has a name? It's a bristelcone pine, and is located at approximately 10,500 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It may not look it, but it is still alive, and has been doing that old "living thing" for about 5000 years. Thus, this fellow was sprouting out of the ground when the Sumerians were putting the first stylus to stone, and inventing writing. Pretty darn old.

Up and down the world, in the area of life, there's a fairly universal element to longevity: Go slow. All the slow moving lifeforms of this world - and others, I will assume - tend to live longer, and in some cases much longer, than the fast moving ones.

As it's said, live fast, die young. Make a note of this, young people!

2 comments:

l.e.s.ter said...

Just this morning I was admiring the high energy of the guys who give away the commuter newspaper and thinking how I could never gear up for that every day. It had never occurred to me that a laconic pace could be a good thing.

Redshirt said...

Without a doubt. I've yet to see any exceptions. This maxim - go slow, live long - even seems to be true with astronomical objects. The longevity of a star is inversely proportional to its size - the bigger, the shorter the life.

It all comes down, as everything in this worlds does, to burning: Are you burning hot and fast, or slow and cool?