We are here only a moment

Green-Wood Cemetery, like the city at large, lost a mess of trees during Sandy. One of them was this giant, which was also the home of a Red-tailed hawk nest for several years. Judging from Facebook, these pins were probably put in by the Cemetery’s tree specialist, Adam Rychlicki, who has been doing this sort of thing lately. It looks like each pin marks 10 years of growth here, except for what looks like the five years below: I was reminded of Madeleine in Vertigo. She’s in Muir Woods with Scottie, and points to a cross-section of a centuries-old redwood, saying “here I was born… and there I died… it was only a moment for you, you took no notice.” Chris Marker quotes the scene silently and still-ly in La Jetée, and, years later, so does Terry Gilliam in 12 Monkeys, somewhat more ponderously but still affectively.

The passing of time is haunting however you look at it.