Known sometimes as a mystic or philosopher and at other times a painter or social reformer, Rabindranath Tagore was a unique personality. In 1913 he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature and in 1930 he had a legendary meeting with the world famous scientist and noted religious iconoclast Albert Einstein. The two men were fascinated by each other and realized they had much to learn from each other. And though it seemed like perhaps their respective views on life and the nature of the universe would leave them with little common ground, Einstein famously remarked, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”
Tagore, like Einstein in many ways, was concerned about the future - both the near future and the more distant. They both understood that life and humanity could not be defined only by what they, or any other individual experienced. They were concerned about mankind’s posterity, about its literal survival and moral development. Tagore believed that even though we will die long before that posterity is realized, we have a responsibility to those who are yet to come. We are charged with creating a safe, moral world for these untold generations to inherit. To that end, Tagore is often credited with having said, “The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.” A brilliantly pithy expression of what our purpose in life may be.
Brilliant though it may be, the expression likely did not originate with Tagore as variations of it are found throughout recorded history. One of the first known versions of it comes to us from antiquity in the writings of Cicero, “serit arbores, quae aalteri saeclo prosint.” (He plants trees for the benefit of later generations). Cicero himself claimed to be quoting poet Caecilius Statius who predates Cicero by about a century or so. More recently the film, Under the Tuscan Sun, delivers a version of this when Martini is explaining how sometimes we prepare for a future we may never see,
“Between Austria and Italy there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.”
Trains or trees, the message is the same.
But I offer a dose of fatalist reality. whether it is the trees or the tracks - it does not matter. The end will come for each of us - for all of us - for Earth itself.
The other day I was sitting with my daughter, enjoying our time together, when my thoughts turned to darkness, as they sometimes do. As I looked at her smiling, blissfully ignorant face, I could not help but feel a sting of guilt. I had helped bring her into a world of suffering and pain - a world in which she will be constantly tested to make the correct choices; a world in which she will need to protect herself from a variety of predators; a world that expects her to toil for most of her waking hours in order to enjoy a few hours of leisure; a world in which humans constantly dehumanize each other in the pursuit of power and wealth. I felt guilty for bringing this wonderfully innocent creature into the world - a world that will eventually make her cynical and informed of all of these harsh truths. I started to think that bringing kids into such a world is a supremely selfish act. My kids love me, they adore me in fact and I adore them. I am a superhero to my kids. They do not know or understand the evil that exists and they are forgiving with lovingly short memories. They are kind and only see the best in people - boy do I love being their dad. But was brining these two beautiful humans into existence the ultimate selfish move? Knowing life will be hard, that they will hurt, both physically and emotionally, and knowing that like all other humans who have ever existed they will ultimately die - I wonder if me giving them life really was just pure selfishness.
And then I think, what does any of it matter? One hundred years from now, will anyone know that I existed? That my kids existed? Will it matter I had a Ph.D. or that that my five year old can beat adults in chess? Will it mater my daughter loves music and the theater or that she plays guitar? Will any of this matter?
According to Tagore and Einstein it does matter… but what do they know anyway?
It seems very unlikely humanity will make it this far, but somewhere around 5 billion or so years from now, our sun will explode and the Earth will be consumed and destroyed. Everything that has ever happened on this planet and everyone who has ever lived will be erased from existence. I look around at all of my stuff, things I cherish - drawings from my kids, photos of my friends and family, keepsakes from my wife, my signed and framed photo of Dave Roberts’ 2004 ALCS Game 4 stolen base, my Compostela on display behind my desk, my Ph.D. on the wall - none of it will matter a few decades from now - it will literally be trash. If it will be trash in fifty years, then it may be fair to say it is trash now.
This is fatalism, this is accepting the inevitable - that nothing that has happened, that is happening, or that will happen really matters in the cosmic sense because everything that ever was or will be is a temporary blip along the linear march of time.
So, what I am saying is, build those train tracks or plant the tree - or don’t, because who cares about that tree anyway?