Roots
Roots
I have lived in historic Chestertown for five years. This town is located on a peninsula across the Chesapeake Bay, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Surrounded by beautiful, vast nature, the flow of time is in harmony with the natural world. I rise when the sun rises and rest when it sets. Chestertown, is a town where life unfolds slowly and quietly.
It is in a blue house, built in 1900, that I live, with the firm resolve to dedicate myself fully to my creative work and complete my life as an artist.
But the reality is, there are too many other things besides my creative work at this house.
Mowing the lawn, weeding, watering, mosquito control, picking walnuts, raking leaves, fixing leaks. Too many repairs, restorations, fixes. Money earned from work goes straight into house maintenance (tears). I lament, “This is no different than paying city rent!” and keep working, relentlessly. Outside the window, the deep crimson autumn leaves are truly beautiful. But what a bummer—I can't stop pondering the pile of fallen leaves... I should just leave them be, no, I have to clean them up.
Back when I lived in a Brooklyn, New York apartment, I was so arrogant, because I was paying rent, demanding the landlord fix everything—whether it was rats, a broken doorbell, or heating problems. Oh, the landlord did everything for me. Now, I want to repent to the landlord with all my heart.
Here comes my major house issue. The main water pipe got clogged so that a back flow could happen when large amounts of water flow, like during laundry or bathing, and it's really stressful.
In Japan, scams targeting the elderly are rampant, using every trick in the book. Drain cleaning scams are common too—my mom might have been scammed once or twice, because there's now a whole box of drain cleaner sitting in our house, just in case.
Scammers may prey on people's fears, but I’m not falling for that crap.
Shortly after moving to this town, I used the bathroom at a friend's house and panicked when the toilet water backed up. My friend did DIY (the practice of building, repairing, or creating things yourself instead of hiring a professional). Digging around the drain and replacing the water pipe? I was amazed. I grabbed a shovel and helped, but...it wasn’t my thing doing repairs myself. I absolutely refuse to do that kind of muddy digging work ever again.
So, I had a plumber come over.
The sewer pipe was clogged, preventing drainage, so he needed to clean it out.
A long, snake-like wire cable was inserted into a 35-foot (approximately 10.7-meter) pipe extending from the sewer pipe on my property to the public sewer line, winding its way through it.
After passing through the pipe and finishing the cleaning, the snake was supposed to be retrieved. But it got stuck partway. Plumbers Mike and Pierce struggled to pull back the clogged metal cable, but it was tough. They paused for a breath, pulled again... paused again. Another helper arrived. With three strong sets of hands carefully pulling the cable back, they finally got it out. To our surprise, a large tree root was attached to the end of it!
That's right... tree roots had grown into the sewer pipe and clogged it up. It was as if a fisherman had pulled up a huge catch with all his might, only to find a tree root tangled at the end of his rod. Everyone couldn't help but laugh. Mike said in his 35 years of experience, he'd never seen roots like this before.
The drainage pipes of this house are made of terracotta (silicified clay pipes) and encased in concrete for structural reinforcement. Over time, tree roots can penetrate through cracks, drawing moisture and nutrients to grow. These plants are incredibly resilient. It's truly science... though this isn't the time for such musings. It was a real eye-opener.
Well, despite worrying about unexpected painful expenses and the future of maintaining this old house, I can't help but be moved by the existence of the roots that have slowly spread through this old drainpipe. I must finish reading that book I abandoned halfway through, “Botany” (by Tatsushi Fujiwara) and I look forward to those long fall nights after work.
Until then, here is an excerpt from the book, “Botany:”
Modern society relentlessly demands of us: Move, keep moving forward, never rest. We might say we struggle within a prison called ‘freedom of movement’. It is neither the confinement itself nor the constant motion. Could the answer lie in how we relate to the earth and the sun? The key may be hidden in the behavior of plants—plants that directly sense wind, light, and soil, yet never move excessively nor remain completely still.
Thank you for reading my newsletter of November 2025.
My monthly scarf is “Roots.“
-Yuh Okano
