A burl is a big ass lump on a tree. Science is the chainsaw to the infinite forest of wonder and mystery. Indeed, science is necessary in small doses for things like curing diseases and building bridges. For me, considering the subject of burls, science should exist in the shadow of unbranded curiosity and our freedom of imagination. With that said, a short internet search on burl formation should sufficiently satisfy your need for creative self-destruction by providing claims that insect eggs and biological parasites are responsible for the early evolution of a burl. In this rambling, however, I am suggesting that a burl is a far more magical and fascinating metaphor into the beauty behind chaos, and an example of the perfect complexity that exists behind a burl, a piece of wood we have labeled as something awful like ‘parasitic.’ Today, we want wood that grows fast and straight, that is cut into square lumber to build square houses with square rooms for square people. If there is a knot or curl in the grain of our lumber or our people, we aggressively plane and sand the knot from our wood, or drown the knot in prescriptions and alcohol from our people. In my day job in wilderness therapy, I work with adolescents and young adults who’s human grain has a shape and a flow outside of what society deems buildable, straight, and appropriate. in the wilderness, we are working tirelessly to convince these people that their unique nature is a blessing and not a curse. Sometimes, people leave the wilderness and re-enter our square society proudly exhibiting their spiraling, twisted, dancing, and magnificent grain. Other times, their label as a ‘parasite’ weighs too heavy and they end up in society’s scrap yards or dead. For me, carving a simple bowl out of the magnificent, powerful, and pyschedelic grain of a burl represents a finished product far beyond a vessel to eat out of or store trinkets in; a burl bowl is a homage to the outlaws, aristocrats, poets, artists, and everyone on the world who has dared to live life against the grain! Like the humble burl, stay weird people.
