Commentary: Remembering Chris Monroe

Being with Chris Monroe was not an easy matter. He had Asperger's, which left him perpetually angry, agitated and close to humorless. He was in every way a serious man.

He was also extremely perceptive and aware and more in tune with nature and the natural world than any I've ever met. He dedicated his time and a good deal of his life to preserving and protecting the natural world he felt most connected to, not the human one.

But his human connections with family and select others were deep and abiding and genuine. It seemed he was almost incapable of lying, certainly never pretending. In these characteristics he was an unusual man, and in his actions even more so. Even though he possessed very little he gave generously to those less fortunate.

For many years Chris was homeless, living on the streets in Santa Rosa and elsewhere. Like so many others in those circumstances, he did jail time. He was the scion of a lawyer and a teacher and artist, and so he knew the trappings of comfort and benefit of a good education. He also knew the cold, hard, ugly underbelly of the human life of the discarded. He knew what it was to be outcast in his own land. It is doubtless that was why he gave his heart, his love, to the things in nature that spoke to him.

One such thing was Jack London's tree. Here's that story. A magnificent, 400-year-old oak tree that sat adjacent Jack and Charmian London's cottage was condemned by the state to be cut down because it was claimed diseased. Chris, an amateur but very knowledgeable arborist, deemed the tree healthy and he convinced an acclaimed UC Berkeley biologist to inspect it. The scientist also deemed the tree healthy and after considerable lobbying and publicity, Chris got its death sentence overturned. That tree stands today, healthy and thriving. A living symbol of a man's love and persistence to honor life.

It was my honor to know Chris Monroe, be considered a friend, and be with a person who walked and lived his talk and spoke from the heart. A rare commodity these days.

Will Shonbrun is a resident of Boyes Hot Springs.