A few weeks ago I wrote about the Live Oak tree down the street that had been cut down to make way for road expansion. (The Mighty Have Fallen.) I was saddened for that tree and concerned for my Oak. I decided then that I wanted to look into getting the tree on our property registered with the Live Oak Society. Doing so provides a measure of protection to the tree, my hope being that my legacy to this house and this property would be the preservation of this mighty tree for generations to come.

As happens in life, things get busy, people get distracted, and good intentions end up sitting in a pile on a desk somewhere. Which is exactly where the registration paperwork I had started was found.

After the events of Friday, I realized that this was something I really needed to move on.

The thing that held up the completion of the form in the first place was deciding on a name.

Should I give the tree a snazzy, clever name like others on the registry had done?

Should I name it after a family member or lay claim to it with our last name forever tying us to it?

The naming of a tree seems too serious and important to make a joke of. And naming it after ourselves, having lived here only a few months, a footnote in the life of the tree, seemed arrogant and self serving.

We decided that the honor and name should go to Alfred S. Eichberg, the architect and first owner of our home. When designing and building the house, Mr. Eichberg had the option of removing the tree and centering the house on his plot of land. Instead he built on the edge of the property, leaving room for the tree to grow.

He respected that the tree was here first and chose to build in its shade and live in harmony with it.

He was the first in a line of stewards and guardians tasked with honoring and protecting it, and I feel it is he who has earned the right to share a name with it.

The paperwork will be sent off tomorrow and if it is accepted, our tree will be known as the Eichberg Oak. We will be just a small, forgotten part of its story and that is enough for me.