Should A Tree Be Known By Its Fruit or Its Root?

A few weeks ago I put the abovementioned question as my MSN screenname, to the puzzlement of many online contacts. To begin with, I saw Shze Wei’s acronym one day and I thought that was interesting...

Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit

(Goh, 2005)

So I was wondering... eih, why is the rationale like that? Is the tree’s worth manifested by its fruit alone, and do we always overlook all the other parts that constitute what we know as a tree? The trunk, the root, the branches, and even the twigs?

In all the seriousness, I really don’t understand. So in a while, I came up with this question.

Should A Tree Be Known By Its Fruit or Its Root?

(Yew, 2005)

Now here’s the relevance of the question. I kind of related it to how a person judges another person, having been intrigued by the way of human judgment as time goes by. I have never tried to claim that I am mature, just and level-headed, because I know I am not. I have always been involved in some ridiculous banterings in which I was arguing for arguing’s sake. In many instances, I have lost my cool and I even resorted to sarcasm and personal attack in order to vent my anger. But among all these immature sides of mine, I have always reckoned myself to be rather forgiving when it comes to being offended by others, be it intentionally or unintentionally. To be specific, I am pretty sure that I have never been angry to a person simply because of an action without an intention.

But to my disappointment, it seems that some people simply don’t care... I don’t know why, but getting angry at somebody is always the easiest way out when somebody else irritates them. As a simple test, let’s say somebody who’s supposed to attend a personal meeting with you, turned out half an hour late, and appear to be happy without a hint of remorse on his face.

What will be your first reaction to him? Or rather, what would be the first emotion that catches you?

For many people, as I have observed, the first emotion would be–no other than anger, sometimes disappointment or even resentment. Yes, he has not been living up to his or her words, so logically, he is indeed culpable and deserves getting a straight face from us. Or at least, that is what we thought.

But have we given a chance for him to explain? Have we found out the reason before we let the anger unleash, occupy us and probably contribute to yet another prejudice?

No, most of the time we don’t. For we always judge from the impression and the action, just like how we often recognize a tree by its fruit rather than its root. Probably he is late because he helped a victim in an accident, who knows? I know this is kind of cliche, but let’s just suppose it’s indeed the case, and mull over it.

Let’s see how many times we have been angry to our friends when things are done unintentionally or even with a good intention. I think we may lose count, because we don’t even care about the intention. In actual fact, we simply get angry like a knee-jerk reflex. But by any means, it does happen all the time. Just like how we feel that we are misunderstood by others at times, that’s exactly what we are always doing to others too–judge someone before he can defend himself.

So, may I ask again, should a tree be known by its fruit or its root? I have always believed that, in any case, the nutrient of the fruit always comes from the root. So when the fruit irritates us, let’s count to five, and think of the root. It may help.