Cutting Down the Cherry Trees

Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” is a story of  Russia in the throes of social upheaval. It takes place during  the last days of Lyubov Ranevskaya’s beloved estate, which is set to be auctioned, along with her famed cherry orchard. In the end, Ranevskaya is unable to save her estate. A former serf buys it at auction to turn it into a housing development. The last sound heard in the play is the chopping down of the cherry trees.

I remember the first time I saw “The Cherry Orchard” at BAM in Brooklyn. It was a long and agonizing play and all the lamenting in it struck me as tiresome.  I knew it was more than the loss of the cherry orchard, but it would take many years for me to understand the complexity of this change.  In many countries today, we are witnessing just the opposite upheaval — the rise of the oligarchy and the fall of the middle class. As David Brooks wrote in The New York Times on April 21, 2017: “Over the past few years especially, we have entered the age of strong men. We are leaving the age of Obama, Cameron, and Merkel and entering the age of Putin, Erdogan, el-Sisi, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un and Trump.”

I watch this  old cherry tree outside my window in full bloom. I am enough of an optimist to believe if we fight for what we value in our country, then we may make our way through this time of upheaval with our democracy in tact. I saw an example of this the other day. A few New Yorkers spent their day taking a group of Syrian refugees around New York City. The Syrians were heartened by this experience and the chance to see New York from an insider’s view. If we all can act out of this kind of boldness and kindness rather than fear,  maybe our own cherry orchard will survive. 

Todd Heisler/ The New York Times