In my current teaching role, I am fortunate to have a very pleasant train commute between the British cities of Oxford and Reading. I have a cherished ritual for this journey: I pack a large travel mug of coffee in the morning, which I savour as I watch the English countryside roll by through the counties of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. I speed by towns and parks, farms with green fields and grazing horses, winding rivers with large stately homes in the distance. I relish this peaceful, scenic part of my day as it gives me time to reflect.

On this daily journey, I see one sight which always gives me pause. It is a lone tree on a sloping green hill, reminiscent of similar trees in two shows of great acclaim and gravitas: the landmark HBO television series Six Feet Under (2001-2005) and the much-loved, now mythologised American film The Shawshank Redemption (1994). The series logo of Six Feet Under - a drama portraying the complex Fisher family, who run a funeral home in Los Angeles - is a lone tree with the series title in a casket-shaped box underneath.

There are many reasons to appreciate Six Feet Under, not the least of which is its intelligent and insightful writing, the poignant tone of which is attributable to screenwriter Alan Ball (American Beauty). In an early episode of the first season, one quirky customer, bereaved of beloved aunt, seeks comfort and understanding from Nate Fisher - the soulful and troubled heir to the family business. She asks what we all wonder: ‘Why do people have to die?’ Nate replies, ‘To make life important. None of us know how long we’ve got, which is why we have to make each day matter.’ And what matters, Nate says, is ‘a life well lived.’

[Warning: Video contains adult language.]

The other tree I’m reminded of is the large oak featured at the end of The Shawshank Redemption, where Andy sends his friend Red to find the clues of where to find him following his escape. Andy describes a field with ‘a big oak tree at the north end. It’s like something out of a Robert Frost poem.’ The iconic tree, located in Ohio, became a tourist attraction for fans; sadly, it was felled by stormy winds in 2017, but it lives on in this memorable film scene in which Red finds the buried box and the letter left for him by his friend. Andy writes: ‘Remember, Red, hope is a good thing - maybe the best of things - and no good thing ever dies.’

When I see this tree from my train, it recalls these cinematic trees, and the narratives of loss and life bound up in their symbolism. Every time, like a sign, I associate it with a core message from Shawshank - that with all its challenges, life comes down to ‘a simple choice: Get busy living or get busy dying.’ I hear it saying -

Get busy living.