A Thousand Pines
Ellie here. Last Wednesday we had the chance to get out of the clinic and over to the Ware Center for an On-Screen/In-Person event. Featured was a documentary called A Thousand Pines (Osband, 2023).
The film reveals the vast acreage of trees that have been harvested as America is the world’s leading consumer of paper products. The main story line followed the men who travel here from Mexico each year for employment reforesting those lands to provide income for their families back home.
The backbreaking labor they put in for 8 months out of the year struck me. Day after day they hauled large pouches stuffed full of young pines, staking a hole every couple steps to plant them, one at a time.
There were scenes which showed how the physical work yielded aching spines, shoulders, and feet. And I was reminded that the things we do in our lives can take a toll on our bodies, whether we work a desk job or do physically tasking labor.