A few years ago I noticed that a tree was growing in the tiny side area between my house and my neighbor’s. By the time I took notice of it the tree was 4 feet tall. Apparently I had been ignoring that side of the house. I don’t know a lot about trees but it looked like it might be some kind of fruit tree. So I waited and asked my gardener. Sure enough, it turned out to be an apricot tree. Since the window above my kitchen sink is right above where the tree has taken root I figured that I must have spit an apricot seed out of the louvers.
Yeah, it was a barbarian move, what can I say? But it was a Blenheim pit, so I decided to let the tree stay even though I was told that since it wasn’t a “grafted” tree and without a strong rootstock it probably woudn’t bear fruit. And for 5 years it didn’t, except for a few lonely guys who would appear each year on one branch. They were the few, the brave, and the delicious. Meanwhile, one year the tree trunk split nearly down to the ground. We shored it up and figured that there would be attrition, but no, the tree thrived.
After spending years in the political closet (one of the dangers of a politically mixed marriage) I have emerged with a flourish, and a job as Press Person for a Michigan candidate for the United States House of Representatives. I have been working for Bob Alexander, a Democrat running in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, against Mike Rogers, a four-term Republican incumbent. Bob is the kind of Democrat my parents are – a Joan Baez, “if you want peace, work for justice” kind of guy who spent years circulating petitions and working crowds “cold” to promote the value of a living wage for working people, and eventually persuaded the Michigan legislature to raise the minimum wage by 29 percent. He was not holding office at the time, mind you; it was just the right thing to do.