Elif Shafak
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if on that particular day, because of too much caffeine or a side effect of some medication he might have taken earlier or simply nerves, Major General Peter Young's hand had shaken just a trifle... Would the border have shifted a fraction of an inch up or down, inserting here, deleting there, and if so, might this involuntary change have affected my fate or that of my relatives?
Elif Shafak
- The Island of Missing Trees
But no matter what kind of trouble it may be going through, a tree always knows that it is linked to endless life forms - from honey fungus, the largest living thing, down to the smallest bacteria and archaea - and that its existence is not an isolated happenstance but intrinsic to a wider community. Even trees of different species show solidarity with one another regardless of their differences, which is more than you can say for so many humans.
