Be A Bristlecone

Ted Lasso made a splash with his adage, “Be a goldfish.” Goldfish, he claimed, have short memories, and the lesson was to leave the past behind.

I say, “Be a bristlecone.”

Bristlecone pines are the epitome of resilience. Many of the Bristlecone pines in Colorado grew from saplings before the birth of Christ. Forests here have some that are more than 2,400 years old, and beyond. The oldest bristlecone on record was the Prometheus tree, which was cut down for research at the ripe old age of more than 5,000 years old. The oldest living tree that we know of is Methuselah, which is verified to be 4,857 years old.

Fossils of bristlecone pines have been found from 46 million years ago.

Bristlcones thrive in alpine zones where the soil is barren of nutrients, and often rock and boulder-strewn. Frigid temperatures may reach -30 F or lower. Winds will whip at 100 mph or more. Summertime is arid, like a desert with little or no precipitation and temperatures reaching 90 F or more. Yet these bristlecones survive, year in and year out.

Bristlecones grow at a very slow rate. Their cones – their means to procreate – are purple on female trees in spring and gradually they darken to a chestnut brown. Their procreation success rate is among the slowest in the plant kingdom.

And yet they survive.

Be a bristlecone.