{"id":5557,"date":"2010-08-25T17:15:18","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T15:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2010-08-25T17:21:20","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T15:21:20","slug":"not-just-a-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/5557","title":{"rendered":"Not Just A Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2006 I wrote an entry titled Just a Tree?<\/a> in which I spoke about my visit to the Anne Frank House<\/a> and the giant chestnut tree that stands behind it.<\/p>\n

At that time there were a lot of discussions in regards to whether they were going to cut the tree down because it was weak and in danger of falling over.\u00a0 It never was torn down though, and to be honest I haven\u2019t thought about it a whole lot since.\u00a0 Until today.<\/p>\n

\"annetree2\"<\/a>I just visited the blog of my friend DutchBitch<\/a> and learned the terrible news that not only were my veggie plants the victim of the fierce winds of late, but also Anne\u2019s beloved Chestnut tree. \u00a0It just fell right over.<\/p>\n

This makes me sad.<\/p>\n

The Anne Frank house is such an important part of the history of Amsterdam. Of this country even.\u00a0 Day after day, year after year, people come from all over the world just to step behind that bookcase and spend a few moments in the same space that Anne Frank once inhabited.<\/p>\n

We all have a moment while we are there, where we step outside of ourselves and try to imagine even just for a second what it was like for her.\u00a0 We probably never come even close, how can we understand the loneliness and fear that she was experiencing at that time?\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a lot there that was truly original after all these years, but the tree was.\u00a0 It may have been bigger, but it was the same tree.<\/p>\n

Now it will be gone.\u00a0 From now on when people visit the Anne Frank House and look out her bedroom window, what will they see?<\/p>\n

I suppose to some it probably sounds silly.\u00a0 They will think It\u2019s just a tree!<\/em>, but no\u2026 it\u2019s not just a tree. At least not to anyone who has read the book or stood in that room and seen it with their own eyes.<\/p>\n

While looking for information after reading DB\u2019s article, I did see something interesting.\u00a0 Apparently eleven saplings have been taken from the tree<\/a> and were brought to the United States for planting.<\/p>\n

Wait? \u2026 What?<\/p>\n

Eleven saplings have been taken from the tree in Amsterdam and have been taken to the United States<\/em> to be planted?<\/p>\n

OI, Americans\u2026 get your filthy mitts off our tree babies!\u00a0 Who do we call about tree abduction??<\/p>\n

Ok, that lady\u2019s parents\u2019 families were killed in the Holocaust, she can have a tree\u2026 but why do they get the other 10?\u00a0 Seriously, why is at least one of them not staying in Amsterdam, or perhaps the other neighbouring countries that are more closely tied to this bit of history.<\/p>\n

HELL, Canada played a major role in saving their butts, why aren\u2019t my peeps<\/em> getting a tree?\u00a0 This is a travesty!<\/p>\n

WAIT, crisis averted! I found another article. Give me a moment to cool my jets here\u2026<\/p>\n

According to this other article there are 150 saplings in Amsterdamse Bos Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re forgiven.<\/p>\n

So there weren\u2019t only 11 saplings, there were tons and they are all over the place.\u00a0 It turns out that Anne\u2019s tree really isn’t<\/em> just a tree, it’s\u00a0like the Octomom<\/a> of trees!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2006 I wrote an entry titled Just a Tree? in which I spoke about my visit to the Anne Frank House and the giant chestnut tree that stands behind it. At that time there were a lot of discussions in regards to whether they were going to cut the tree down because it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[138,59],"class_list":["post-5557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-man-thats-sad","category-memory-lane","tag-amsterdam","tag-dutch-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5562,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions\/5562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}