While traveling in California I took a day to visit King’s Canyon in the Sequoia National Forest. It is incredible.

I came to see the famed Sequoia trees, in particular General Grant, which in 1926 was named the nation’s Christmas tree. As the third largest tree in the world by volume, Grant is an impressive sight, although I don’t really see the Christmas tree resemblance.

In 1956 Eisenhower declared the tree a “National Shrine”, a living memorial to American soldiers lost in wars. It’s a sweet gesture. But it strikes me as comical.

This tree is estimated to be about 1400 years old, less than halfway through its potential lifespan. To put this in perspective, the oldest republic in the history of man was the Republic of Venice, which lasted about 1100 years. This tree was growing before that republic existed. Even if America lasts as long, we may still not outlive this tree. Unless of course we kill it with pollution and climate change, which is becoming a serious threat to the whole canyon.

It takes a certain amount of arrogance to see a tree which lived for nearly a millennium before Europeans even discovered America and think, “this tree means something and its meaning is American soldiers.”