How Will You Treat Me?

Dixon Art Gallery across the south lawn

I went to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens on Saturday to see the daffodils. The weather was wonderful: sunny and 76 F. You just never know what you're going to see when you go somewhere, though, and on this trip I saw an interesting art installation I hadn't noticed before.

Titled "How Will You Treat Me?" it is by Cat Peña, who came to Memphis in 2006 to pursue a Master of Arts degree at the Memphis College of Art. The sign says the work

connects viewers to a larger network of nature and their places within it as they assume the role of caretaker to a young red cedar sapling. The continued well-being of a single tree becomes a metaphor to humankind's relationship with nature and the individual's environmental stewardship.

I didn't take one of the trees offered:

My little patio isn't a good spot for this tree to thrive.

This is not the kind of art I'm used to seeing, and I don't think I "get it" as a work of art. That's ok, though. Sometimes I think my life is a bit too much of what I'm used to, and something different can be a blessing. Stretching.