The Chestnut Tree

A friend recently gave me a copy of a Hermann Hesse novel that deals with the conflict between spirit and flesh. I won't comment on it very much since I am still just starting it, but I found it fascinating that he would talk about a tree for the first two pages of introducing this storyline of a monk and a--for lack of a better term--hedonist, whose pursuits of life and salvation are so contrasted. In literature we have all kinds of terms and ideas of how to group, classify, describe, and merit different works. My own method is primarily thematic and drawn more from art. Degas said we should not paint what we see, but what we want others to see. Thus, in literature, we write not what we see or feel, but what we want our readers to experience. The whole point of art and literature is to be see, read, heard, and experienced; so why does Hesse want me to experience an old chestnut tree that was brought from Italy to this cloister? Why does he want me to understand it's conspicuous presence among the indigenous plants? What is it about this tree that is so vital to understanding the rest of the novel that it deserves the foremost position in the book? I think you can answer that question for yourself as you realize the themes of salvation and living through either the flesh or the spirit are framed by the brevity of human life.



"For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more."

Psalm 103:14-16



The chestnut tree is not the point of the story, but a witness. You might say the tree is telling the story as one who has seen people come and go, and has seen this theme so strongly in these particular characters that it must speak and tell what it has observed. I'm not saying Hesse is approaching this from a biblical Christian viewpoint. He was, like all men, on a spiritual journey throughout his entire life as he navigated the turbulence of trials and tribulations; and he was constantly trying to find a bit of enlightenment that could help him through whatever challenge he was facing. His work endures because he targets not one group of people, but all people, and I cannot understand his wisdom except through my own lens.



We can all relate to the themes of tension between the flesh and the spirit. Paul talks openly about this in Romans 7, where he shares his own frustration in not being able to fulfill the desires of the spirit for want of overcoming the desires of the flesh. I'm not satisfied in my own ability to manage this tension, which is why I chose to write about it. Whatever lust, anger, or depression you're feeling isn't unique to you. Every single person you've been comparing yourself to with shame and disappointment is enduring the same struggle you are. Some of us are at different phases of the battle, either at the point of guilt in the face of breaching our own ethical convictions, or at the point of succumbing to the force of somatic chemistry and blind emotion that wakes us up in the middle of the night with a hangover of restless regret.



"He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him."

Psalm 103:10-13



Look out your window and find a tree. It may have been planted when you were a child, or last week, or it was planted long before your parents or grandparents. That tree doesn't get to experience the joys of life and the delight of God the way we do. Neither does it struggle between the whims of its branches and the commandments of God. But it sits there quietly as you choose each day which path you will take. Don't just make the right decisions or do the right deeds, but wrestle. Fight for your ethics within yourself so it's not just a reflection of obeying someone else's decisions, but your own decisions to serve a God who wants you to love him from your heart and not someone else's. And in that journey, help other people to make God's will their own as well.



"For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

Psalm 51:16-17