Originally broadcast on CHED Radio, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1963

On my uncle's farm there stood a tall and ancient pine tree.  I remember back 30 years and it was a towering tree even then.  Three of us would join hands to see if we could encircle it's trunk.  During high winds, it was the one tree that never seem to lose branches.  It bore the scars of several direct hits by lightning.  I love that old tree for it seemed to me that nothing could really harm it.  Nature sent its worst against it time and time again, yet it still stood there, tall and strong and straight.  I went back to see the old tree this summer. It was leveled to the ground.   I looked closely at it and saw what had happened.  An army of beetles had burrowed through it's bark and attacked it's very heart.  Little by little they chewed away at this great tree until it crumbled and fell to earth.  Lightning and wind and the passing of time could never harm this tree, yet those small bugs, which you could squash between your fingers had brought it down.  I thought to myself, how like human beings that old tree was.  Somehow we survived the major storms of life.  Business failures, the death of those near and dear to us, the disappointments and heartbreaks we all have to face seldom bring us to our knees.  It's those beetles of day to day worry that eventually kill us.  We handle the big troubles only to succumb to the small.  We clear the high fences, then stumble over the low rails.  If you are a worrier, think about that old tree.  There is a good lesson there if you'll but heed it.