Päivää mänty. Hauska tutustua tai yrittää tutustua. Teitä on täällä lukuisia hiekkarannan luona, paviljongin ja hiekkarannan välillä, lähellä Hietaniemen hautausmaata, itse asiassa aika lailla Helsingin keskustassa. Olette kantakaupunkilaisia kaikki. Täällä on lukuisia, tai ei lukuisia mutta muutamakin mänty, joka on huomattavasti sinua vanhempi ja kookkaampi tai komeampi mutta sinulla on tässä erittäin kaunis kasvupaikka. Sinä olet lähimpänä merenrantaa nyt tässä kohtaa. Nyt kun on jää ja lumi ja rantaviivaa on vaikea erottaa en oikein osaa sanoa että kuinka lähellä olet, ja tässähän menee tie rannan ja sinun välissä, mutta kuitenkin hienolla paikalla. Ajattelin tulla keskustelemaan kanssasi tästä kaupunkilaisuudestasi muutaman kerran tässä kevään aikana. Me ihmiset olemme niin ylimielisiä ja ajattelemme yleensä, että täytyy olla ihminen ollakseen kaupunkilainen. Mutta toisaalta monet kyllä kiintyvät kovasti teihin puihin ja erityisesti mäntyihin, ja loukkaantuvat verisesti jos joku yrittää teitä kaataa asuinrakennusten tieltä esimerkiksi, mikä on tietysti hyvä asia, koska sekin on todettu että sellaisissa kaupunginosissa jossa on enemmän puita ihmiset voivat paremmin ja elävät pidempään. Ja tämä pitää paikkansa silloinkin jos otetaan huomioon tai lasketaan pois taloudelliset edut, toisin sanoen se, että usein rikkaampien ihmisten asuinalueella on enemmän puita tai että rikkaammilla ihmisillä on varaa terveydenhuoltoon paremmin ja niin poispäin. Mutta tämä siis erotus terveyden suhteen tai ikään kuin puiden ja ihmisten terveyden yhteys säilyy riippumatta tästä varallisuus kysymyksestä. Ja muistan vielä joskus lukeneeni että kysymys on jopa ikään kuin siitä lehvistön määrästä, että ei auta jos on pieniä puunsoiroja vaikka kuinka monta, vaan se, että kuinka paljon on lehvistöä. Ja nyt sinullahan ei ole oikeastaan lehdistöä kun olet mänty ja havupuu. Sinulla on neulasia, mutta kyllähän sinäkin yhteytät koko ajan ja tuotat happea ja eteerisiä öljyjä ympäristöösi. Ennen vanhaan rakennettiin sairaalat ja parantolat ja sanatoriot mäntykankaille kun ajateltiin, että esimerkiksi tuberkuloosin parantumiseen niin männyt saattoivat avittaa siinä. No, minä luulen että te olette kyllä kasvaneet täällä rannassa ihan itseksenne, että teitä ei ole tänne istutettu. Varmasti te olette olleet täällä ennen kuin tuo paviljonki tuohon rakennettiin, vaikka sekin on ollut tässä jo pitkään. Männyt voivat elää parisataa vuotta vanhoiksi ja luin juuri että Suomen vanhin mänty, joka kasvaa jossakin aivan pohjoisessa itärajan tuntumassa Urho Kekkosen kansallispuistossa, se on peräti 800 vuotta vanha. Mutta kuvan perusteella se ei ollut mitenkään huikean paksu, niin että ei sitä tiedä kuinka vanha tässä sinunkin vieressäsi kasvava komea vanha mänty on. Jos sinä olet, en uskalla arvata että olisitko satavuotias, en tiedä. Mutta tämä on ehkä tällaista ihmisten haihattelua tämä vuosissa laskeminen, paitsi kyllähän teilläkin on vuosirenkaat. Elikkä kyllä tekin kirjoitatte ylös ikään kuin omaan ruumiiseenne ajan kuulumisen. No, nyt ryhdyn höpisemään sitä sun tätä, mutta tästä kaupunkilaisuudesta, palataan siihen vielä. Ja hyvää nyt tässä talven loppua ja kevään alkua sinulle. Kiitos että saan keskustella kanssasi. Voi hyvin.
Hello Pine, hello. I was here once before but at the time I addressed you in Finnish. Now I try to speak in English, unfortunately, because I don't know 'Pinish' or pine language or what would be the best way to address you. Last time I was here the sun was shining; it was cold but now it's damp and grey and the snow is melting and the spring is coming, which is lovely. And you probably like that, too. Why I come to you this bluntly - I hope you don't mind my leaning on your trunk and trying to have a conversation with you. The reason I will try to do that is to think about this idea of citizenship. Well, I began by thinking of city dwelling actually, because in Finnish the word 'kaupunkilainen' means city dweller, citizen in that sense, whereas 'kansalainen' the 'nation dweller' would be then the citizen in the common understanding of the word, I suppose. And that may be a little bit far-fetched, but this idea of pine trees as citizens in terms of city dwellers is somehow very obvious here in Hietaniemi, where there is plenty of you, by the shore and near the beach. There is also a cemetery nearby and the beach is very popular in summertime, but you also make the place very beautiful because you create this place, this landscape right here. And of course, the idea of citizen in the terms of dweller in a city is relevant in terms of trees especially because the choice of place to live, rather than the official accreditation to a nation or a state or something like that, is sometimes very important in practice. So, we humans tend to think that we can freely move but for many people moving around it's not so easy. And even the people who would be technically and legally allowed to move or could afford that, they tend to stay in one place and maybe go away for holiday or something but they remain relatively rooted. Or at least they used to, especially in earlier times, where people were farmers but also the citizens of specific cities, which were like small mini-states in themselves. And of course you're very much rooted right here and have difficulty in moving far away from the place where you were born or where you settled when you started to grow. But of course your offspring can fly with birds or with the wind quite far. And over the generations you keep moving, of course. I also thought about this idea of city as sound, because here now today, maybe partly because of the wind or because there is not much foliage except for your needles to protect from the sound. The sound from the nearby highway or motorway, the western highway or 'Länsiväylä' is quite strong and I wonder if you're used to that sound, because at least we humans get very easily used to quite a lot of noise and then we're not aware that it stresses us, but we're not conscious of it, but our our body registers it anyway. And since plants are able to hear you probably also register the noise from the traffic. You probably also can hear me at the moment, but it might be that my voice is on a frequency that is uninteresting for you, so maybe you can't really distinguish my voice; you just, it just merges with the background noise. It's actually a bit lazy of me not to try to find out what kind of sounds pine trees best can hear, but it might be that that is not, there is no research on that yet. Because the understanding that plants can hear sounds and even emit some sort of sounds, is not that old as far as I understand. Well, old, maybe some indigenous traditions would have that knowledge but in like western science the idea that plants can hear sound, distinguish sound, is not very common or has not been accepted for a long time. Alright, maybe I shouldn't bother you more, but I thought I hope it's okay for you if I come to visit you a few times and, yes. I wish you a nice day and enjoy the fresh air with the humidity and moisture and of course all the light that now increases day by day. So, take care.
Hello pine. Today it's a windy day, very windy day. I'm trying to protect my phone so the wind woun't destroy this recording completely. It's not raining at the moment, or maybe there is a drizzle, but you protect me from that at the moment. After a very nice and sunny Easter this backlash is sad but that's what can be expected of April; we speak of April weather. Last time I spoke about the idea of citizenship compared to citizen, city dweller or urbanist or a resident of a city and I looked this up in the Merriam Webster dictionary and they explained that originally the idea of resident and citizen were more similar but today they have a very different meaning or somewhat different meaning. So if I remember correctly the word citizen was used in the 14th century to refer to exactly the dweller in a city, somebody resident in a specific city with a specific rights and specific duties, 'bürger'. And the citizen word comes from 'cité' or city. But then later on the word citizen came to mean more what it does today, that is, not only the resident in a specific city but in a state. And being a citizen of a nation, for instance, is important for certain rights and responsibilities like paying taxes and having some protection and being able to vote and maybe having the duty of serving in the military and so on. And of course in that sense you're not a citizen; you don't pay taxes, you can't vote, you don't have to serve in the Armed Forces, but you sure are a resident of this city, Helsinki. And of course residence can me and also many things, so you can be a resident artist and whatever, but normally we think of somebody being a resident of a country or a city by that they have their home there, they live there. And in some way I think the idea of citizenship is not so far-fetched considering pine trees like you or any trees, because you do somehow do your duty in creating this environment and in producing air, good oxygen rich air for all of us, and providing other so-called ecosystem services. And therefore you should also have some rights, of course, for instance to dwell in peace and unharmed by human works and so on. But all the problems related to citizenship and residence permits and so on, which are important for humans who move around, they are not a problem for you. Although of course you also do move around as we spoke of last time. This idea of calling you Citizen Pine is of course a little bit of pun with the title of the famous film Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. But to my surprise, when I looked for the meaning of the word citizen and its history I also noticed there is a music group called Citizen Pine. I didn't find material about what kind of music it is, maybe it's some sort of folk music or rock music or pop or whatever; I couldn't find out that. And why they chose to call themselves like that, I don't know. Anyway, I don't know what else I should tell you today; of course this idea of a perspective came to my mind because I'm working on a text for another context. And we humans we have our perspective based on our bodies, so we have a front and a back and we can see only in front of us, and a little bit to the sides, unlike some other animals who have much wider vision. And our understanding of the world is very much about left and right and front and back, whereas you probably think in terms of up and down I would imagine. Because on the one hand you're stretching upwards towards the light, the sun, and growing upwards, and then you're going downwards into the soil with your root deep, deep, deep. And as I understand you pines have especially deep roots that go sort of; there is one taproot that goes deep deep, and that makes you more stable in storms than some other trees that have their roots spread out closer to the surface. But anyway, this idea of perspective is really multifaceted for you because there is no front and back or right and left for you. You have your view in all directions and that's amazing of course, and probably grants you some understanding of the place where you live that we humans have difficulties with. But anyway, enough for today and see you perhaps next week. So, let's hope for better weather and thank you for today. Take care.