The Lesson of Cherry Blossoms

Nashville’s cherry trees seem more spectacular than ever to me this year. Maybe that’s because I’ve been paying attention to them more than I used to. There’s something particularly poignant this spring about those clouds of white-blushing-pink, a botanical legacy of Japan. This week NPR’s Morning Edition aired a story–Japan’s Cherry Blossoms in Brief, Beautiful…

Botanical Homage to Japan

In Japan right now, families should be enjoying the sakura zensen, the “cherry blossom front” that sweeps northward from Okinawa to Hokkaido from January through early April. Throughout the spring, families and friends celebrate Hanami, picnics shared beneath the luminous pink-and-white canopies of blooming ornamental cherry. Instead, this springtime in Japan brings unimaginable calamity. As…