Accommodating. Sassafras. Promethean. Shape-Changer. The Gift; The Leaf Fits the Need.

The Gift of Danger and Life-Giving.

The Shape-Changer.

Sassafras -

What Moral for Authority

1. Promethean.

Prometheus, punished in the ancient world by the gods for giving fire to mankind.

See ://www.gradesaver.com/mythology/study-guide/section3/.

Then, find Raven, in the tales of the Indians, in the North American northwest.

He stole a ball of fire, a bright ball,

From the Sky Chief

And gave it to Humanity.

See ://www.adherents.com/lit/Na/Na_417.html.

2. The Shape-Changer.

Among the Celts, see Fintan, the Salmon of Wisdom, Celtic Mythology://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/D3.HTM/ He flew above Noah's Ark, changed himself into a hawk to fly above the waters, then into a fish to swim in them. He ate the gods magic hazelnuts, got their wisdom, but was himself caught and eaten, and his eater got all the knowledge. Go, Finn MacCool, who then became a seer.

More Shape-changer. Do a "find" for shape-changer,

And scroll down to Salish.

So, Edgar Allen Poe's Raven is like a "Salish Prometheus."

Prometheus - another part of the globe.

3. The Sassafras

Also a gift, also dangerous is misused.
Multiple lobes on leaves at the lower stories fade away

To become one boring single-shape, no lobes, at the top.

It is the need to maximize light exposure below

That leads to the creativity.

Those who already have it, at the top, relax, and become (yawn) borrring.

Sassafras: Leaves, lobes. Understory.
.
This site is dedicated to the Sassafras. Sunseeker.
Shape-changer.
To find it, look for one set of leaf groupings below, in the understory.

Then look around for the big trees - another, a single type of leaf, forming the canopy, above.
The lower shrubby, thickety parts

Grow leaves in three shapes, all on the same twig - One lobe, two lobe (like a mitten),

And three-lobe, all kind of irregular.

Each geared to maximize exposure to light,

Or the ability to fit in a small space, whatever is needed.

Those that make it, become the big trees.

The canopy.
And the big trees at the canopy level revert to boring.
The canopy sports but one kind of leaf.

A single lobe, up there.

The irony is that the conformist leaf dominates --

The plant reverts to singlemindedness

When the more creative work of survival is done below.

And it is the least intereseting - no lobes at all.

The single dull leaf. Like people?

After time, sure.

The next generation is far less interesting

Than the one that made it to the top originally.
See the push from the top to conform-

Tries to make everyone alike in obedience to the needs of the canopy.

Intolerant of the diverse upstarts who keep pressing upwards.

Then the diverse upstarts, once they establish themselves in the canopy,

Themselves revert to what the big trees do when they get there:

Conform, in their own interest.

The under 30's become AARP.

The common colors of the country club vs. the dazzle of the streets.