Tree-ish Rappinghood

What's a tree's worth? The other morning, slammed in traffic -- first vehicular then human -- en route to the Mariposa Grove of redwoods, I kept thinking of the Tom Tom Club's Wordy Rappinghood. It's a rat's race at a fast pace. Don't we go in search of trees to leave this stream?
What's a tree's worth? In Mariposa, French, Spanish, Japanese, here a language, there a language, heads tilted backwards, cameras held aloft, children standing next to unearthed root systems resembling a woodcut for Blake's lines. All a day's work for the redwoods.
What's a tree's worth? I walked 2.2 miles (or so they told me) shuffling dust with my children and a bunch of complete strangers. And while I usually find over-stuffed outdoorsy activities not to my liking -- give me solitude and a less scenic route any day -- I would fight the crowds again to stand among those trees.
My friend the poet Susan Gevirtz said we like big trees because they remind us of the passage of time. We can put our hands on their trunks and feel time.
Is this the reason we go to them?
Or do we like superlatives so? Largest trees on the planet -- almost. Oldest tree in this grove. Branches bigger than tree trunks in most of the world's forests.
From my notebook: Four trees called The Bachelor and Three Graces. While sneaking a closer look, a tractor trailing hauling open-air cars, wheezes by, a little bit of the Garden State Parkway right here in California. Passengers all wore headsets. Me: jealous. Hold deep, secret love of "audio tours" (don't tell) -- both because of whom they choose to read the script (always better when it's either someone who also performs Shakespeare or an inordinately sincere expert) and because it is so directional. When most things that get audio tour treatment (art, trees) are actually invitations to be wildly creative and free.
Facts on these trees -- shallow roots, only six feet beneath where I stand...down there, drinking...as I write this, drinking 1,000 gallons a day, these four trees so entwined there will be no separation for them -- if one falls, they all go down. The whole root system is said to cover half an acre.
The problem with tree facts? We get too much at one time. One or two ideas is enough. Enough. Stop reading the placards lining the route.
I like the Taoist idea of trees. How lucky they are to be content to stay in one place and grow.
After I write this, it is time to rejoin the stream, pressing, crying children in dusty strollers, crying children told sotto voce to shut up, squirrel loudly named Chubb by a teen-age boy feeding it crumbs, well-turned-out French hikers jutting lips and wiping brows saying d'accord, the whole place snapping, yapping, clapping.
What's a tree worth?