Oak

Oak: the very word alone conjures ideas of hardness, integrity, durability. It’s all over Shakespeare: “under an oak whose antique root peeps out / upon the brook that brawls along this wood,” “under an oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age,” “the worthy fellow is our general: he’s the rock, the oak not to be wind-shaken,” “If thou more mumur’st, I will rend an oak / And peg thee in his knotty entrails till / Thou has howl’d away twelve winters.”

I smell whiskey in its barrels. Oak is the ideal choice to store whiskey for several signature traits. Thanks to a large volume of medullary rays in the wood structure, oak is remarkably strong. Also, the cells of white oak contain tyloses, outgrowths on parenchyma cells of the tree’s xylem, the vascular tissue in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and helps bring density to the wood; that, in addition to water-conducting cells called tracheary elements, makes oak impervious to leaking. Whiskey steeped in casks of oak will evoke caramel. Vanilla, toasted almond, coconut, maple syrup and joviality. Is joviality a flavor? Always.

Everything about oak speaks to the things of this world that are strong and dependable, and invite trust and goodwill. Robin Hood and his merry band camped under the broad leafage of a giant oak in Edinstowe, England, that is said to be anywhere from 800 to 1100 years old. Fondly known as Major Oak, the tree has a trunk circumference of 36 feet and has an estimated weight of 23 tons. This tree is regal. There is wisdom in its branches. It invites camaraderie. It provokes a quest for justice. It stimulates the imagination. It arouses scenes of merriment and carousal. Errol Flynn swaggering into a castle banquet with a dead deer on his shoulders and a glint in his eyes. Wealth redistribution comes from a place of ancient wood. The deep dense grain of a Druidic oak, its branches extending in all directions.

More than 2,000 oak trees in more than 200 French forests are to be felled to replace Le forêt of Notre-Dame de Paris which was destroyed in the fire of April, 2019. Le forêt – in English, The Forest – is the lattice of beams and supports that supported the 315 ft-high spire designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to replace the earlier and shorter spire completed in 1230, which - due to the ravages of time - had begun to show signs of decay in the 18^th century, and was taken down in 1792. Viollet-le-Duc’s spire was unveiled on August 18^th, 1859. The spire, covered in lead, weighed 250 tons, and was supported by the four pillars of the transept. The oak trees felled to replace their medieval counterparts have been carefully measured. The trunk must measure a minimum of three feet in width and sixty feet high. After each oak has been cut down, it will be left to dry for eighteen months; humidity will need to be less than 30%, for the wood to be workable. Too dry, it will crack. Too wet, it will warp. And this is how oak teaches wisdom.

When time is done ticking, oak will remain. When the cathedral of the universe is done expanding, and space trembles with the explosive energy of stars, it will be supported by oak.