David Hassler

Beneath a thin layer of soil, along vast fungal networks, trees talk to one another, warning of insect attacks. They have evolved as allies. We, too, are relational beings, what trees breathe out, we breathe in. The earth is a vast lung of which we are a part.

When George Floyd gasped, “I can’t breathe,” his dying words became a rallying cry, another distress signal to wake up and activate a seedbed in our bodies to dismantle systemic racism and white supremacy. Can white America learn from the trees to work as allies and honor the breath of George Floyd?