Thank God, no human or tree was critically hurt in Thursday’s McCorkle Place firebombing.
This Daily Tar Heel story about the events struck me not only for what it reveals about Physics and Astronomy Professor Dan Reichart’s heroism, but also (in one snippet from the article) for how it reminded me of Chapel Hill’s cultural wealth. According to an eyewitness, the suspect in last Thursday’s firebombing on McCorkle Place (who was later taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation) yelled “the tree of knowledge is on fire” around the time of the events. The burning arbor in question, of course, was Davie Poplar.
Anyone who’s ever walked an admissions tour at UNC knows about Davie Poplar, and for some good reasons. The tulip poplar is estimated to be over 300 years old, it’s named after one of the University’s founders and it’s connected to a story about how the University will fall if it does (as well as support cables to help ensure that legend is never tested).
Prune away that history, and peel back the bark of its name, “Davie Poplar,” and all that’s left is a beautiful old tree. What’s really special about Davie Poplar, in other words, is that we all know about it.
The tree’s name and associated trivia together form one piece of a rich culture through which almost any given Chapel Hill community member can connect with any other. This local culture is a wonderfully practical thing for easing social relations.
You know that feeling you get on a cold early October day when you make an obscure Mean Girls reference with a new acquaintance, and they catch it? It’s a warm feeling of understanding and belonging — a sense that they they speak at least some of your language. It’s a first step toward friendship.
I’m confident that we — the people on the streets, in the classrooms and in the businesses of Chapel Hill — experience that feeling more with one another than two random Americans thrown together would. The richness of our UNC community culture — sports, the Old Well, He’s Not Here, Chapel Hill’s Halloween — facilitates that type of proximate connection by providing shared reference points.
But we can do better by focusing more on local news, events, music and art. At least, I can. Why, for example can I talk at length about Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (2010), but not about Mipso? Sure, it’s fun to know that I can go almost anywhere in the 50 states and have a decent chance of sparks flying between me and someone else who also has a passion for Taylor’s country to pop transition period, but I don’t spend the majority of my time anywhere in the 50 states. I spend it in Chapel Hill. Time spent listening to “Back to December” amounts to preparing myself to relate to the whole nation, when the people that matter most — the people I see in my daily life and thus have the most chance to interact with in a meaningful way — live within a five mile radius of the Old Well.
I guess that’s why I cheer Davie Poplar’s survival so heartily. As a local cultural symbol, it may not yield knowledge of good and evil for the whole world, but it can bear plentiful fruit in helping UNC people connect with other UNC people.
