You long for trees in the desert, not just for the shade they provide, but also because they stretch up toward space...Trees create room.
-Exterminate All the Brutes, Sven Lindqvist
William Shatner often plays the fool but he said something almost profound when he returned from the edge of space on the Bezos rocket. Up there where it turns cold and black, he said, you realize just how thin is the baby blue blanket that covers us and keeps us warm. When I was on the Darb the midday sky was mostly heavy, thick and oppressive, and the few trees that we found for rest breaks gave us shade, but they also seemed like tent poles, lifting that blanket above our heads so that we could move, so that we would not suffocate in bed and had room to breathe.