Marcel Winatschek

Why So Many Trees

Okay, we didn’t sink. That was the main concern—Sonjalein and I in this little boat on the Neuer See, trying to keep our phones and iPods dry. The mission succeeded, at least technically.

We were looking for turtles. Found mostly hostile ducks instead, the kind that seem genuinely interested in sinking small craft. We may have run over one, hard to say. At a certain point you stop tracking the details.

What I kept wondering about was why there are so many trees in the forest. Just… why? All of them, just standing there. It’s exactly the kind of pointless question you ask when you’re floating on a lake with someone equally bored, and it somehow feels like you’re close to understanding something about how the world gets arranged. You’re not. But for a few hours it feels that way.