Another week, another hole in the sky.

Not to be melodramatic, but that’s how I feel when another tree goes down in the neighborhood. This one was tall, but it didn’t fall on its own. It was taken down, a preemptive strike of some sort.

I don’t know why it was cut down. I did not talk to the homeowner. It did not seem to be titling precipitously toward the house, or anyone’s house, but it could have been diseased. And it was big; perhaps caring for it had become too much of a bother.

Whatever the reason — and in the post-Superstorm Sandy era, many homeowners have needed no reason beyond their memory of fallen trees, damaged homes and downed power lines — it’s always sad when a tree comes down. A tree, after all, is a gift. It asks little of us but offers an abundance in return — from its essential role in nature’s symbiosis to its contributions to our health and visual aesthetics.

Standing against this lament, of........

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