Chairs

Who needs chairs? All one does with them is sit down. This brings me to my next point, who needs to sit? Human beings are strong people and should be able to stand for days at a time. In fact, it is said that some indigenous tribes have had members who have stood up for three days straight… they died two days later. But that is beside the point. Standing up makes one strong and it also save trees. Two weeks ago I interviewed Laura Greengrass, the CEO of Stand Up for trees rights, and had a very informing talk with her. When asked if she supported standing up for long hours instead of using chairs she responded with, “Yes, I completely agree with standing up for long hours at a time. I haven’t been surer of anything in all my life. Standing up shows character. These trees have rights just like you and me. Some of them have been here longer then we have! So why should they have to worry about getting chopped down? Go Green, Stand Strong!” Very powerful ideas coming from Ms. Greengrass.

Despite the powerful words spoken by Ms. Greengrass, not everyone agrees with her. Last Thursday I went up to Oregon to speak with a Lumberjack Tribe. I had to be escorted when talking with the Lumberjack’s. This is because Lumberjack’s are known to be hostile when they don’t have their pancakes. I spoke to the first Lumberjack I could find and when I asked him about standing up instead of cutting down trees he said, “CHOP, CHOP, CHOP is all I know! If we don’t go and cut down trees how will we have chairs? We Lumberjack’s need chairs to sit down in and eat pancakes. Oh, and Sir do you have any pancakes?” I quickly ran from the area afterward and made sure I was far from the Lumberjack’s sights. These words definitely made an impression on me. It was not until then that I realized what chairs are for.

Chairs are not for relaxing in. They are for eating pancakes with. The Lumberjack had a good point. How would we eat pancakes without chairs? We need the Lumberjack’s to continue to cut down these trees in order to continue eating pancakes. Have you ever eaten a pancake standing up? No I don’t think so. However, I did not take the words of Ms. Greengrass lightly. She has very good points about the trees. But when one has to decide between pancakes and chairs it’s pretty straight forward what the person would choose, the pancakes. Also, after talking with Lumberjack I realized how ridiculous it is to stand all the time! Now that I can sit down I’m going to live life to the fullest. So when I asked ‘who needs chairs?’ the answer is, I need chairs.