Please help me find this SF short story -- SPOILERS

Hello,

About 3 years ago, I read a short story. You might say that, technically, it isn’t science fiction. Fine.

Everything that follows is a spoiler. I don’t know how to describe the story adequately without giving it away.

[SPOILER]

The story is in the form of a letter, written from an oak tree to an unnamed superior. The oak tree recounts his/her abilities to appear large and small, as is appropriate for drivers at varying distances. The whole letter replaces our concepts of reality with an odd relativism, in that the oak tree is itself responsible for its appearance, not the usual laws of physics and perspective.

The purpose of the oak’s letter is to object about a driver who hit the oak tree and died. The tree complains that, since it was the last thing the driver saw, it must keep itself in the driver’s eyes for all eternity, and that’s really asking too much.

[\SPOILER]

It might be written by Ursula Le Guin. I don’t remember the title. Can anybody help me identify and find this short story?

Thank you for all serious replies.

Ted Shoemaker

It’s called The Direction Of The Road

It would have taken less than two hours if you had posted this in the right forum. You wouldn’t have needed to wait for another new user to register before your question was answered.

The author of the story is indeed Ursula K. Le Guin. The story is variously titled “The Direction of the Road” or “Direction of the Road”. Here’s a list of all its appearances:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69861

I’m not sure whether DrFidelius has reported this for a move yet, so I will.

Moved from General Questions to Cafe Society.

samclem, Moderator

I don’t remember the story being a letter written to a superior - I remember it as a simple first person reflection/narrative.

I connected strongly with the definition of space and time.