By MARCIA RUDOFF

Old age, I’ve discovered, can be a tricky business. Everything I used to think was valuable seems to have become worthless by modern standards.

I’m still here in this world, but it’s becoming a tough balancing act to understand modernity.

I was upset to read in the Dec. 31 edition of the Bainbridge Review that city Hearing Examiner Margaret Klockars had rejected some Bainbridge citizens’ attempts to save the beautiful willow and locust trees on Wyatt Way.

Their removal is to make room for a sidewalk and parallel parking. This is so we can add yet another development to the many vacancies already dotting the island.

Klockars admitted the trees have some aesthetic value and create “a spot of incredible beauty.” She acknowledged that “the loss of the trees [will] be felt,” but feels the loss is offset by the saving of the maple tree at the corner. (Seen one tree and you’ve seen them all?)

The developer can plant some new trees that maybe one day will have the beauty and air-purifying qualities of the mature trees they replace. Maybe, in another 50 years or so.

Klockars further defended her position by pointing out that the loss of historical structures on the property diminished the trees’ cultural value.

The old Hoskins house and water tower used to be on that lot and were part of the Winslow walking tour. Those had to go the last time a developer thought he might put a development there.

Why do things of natural beauty have to have historical structures nearby to give them significance anyway?

Remember that line by the poet Joyce Kilmer, “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree”?

Can I change the word poem to condo and still believe the line is true? Apparently not. Not today. There’s money to be made. The willow and locust trees and all their incredible beauty will have to go.

A few weeks after I read about the fate of the trees on Wyatt, I read another headline, in the Bainbridge Review of Jan. 16: “Historic home may give way to Ericksen Avenue development.”

According to the article, the home, built in 1903, was one of six remaining Ericksen houses that were built with timbers from the Winslow Shipyard.

That gives it historical significance, so why this headline? Isn’t this home protected?

Well, yes, but if you tow it away, the lot, sans house, will then be without historical significance and Mr. Developer can build his 2,075 square-foot commercial building and throw in a 3,400 square-foot condo structure behind it. And Bainbridge Island can have still more vacant office space and unsold condos to add to the ones we already have.

I am trying to get over my old fashioned ways and to accept that we can’t stop progress. I mourn our loss of the Hoskins house and will mourn the loss of the willow and locust trees. Soon I’ll add to this the loss of the sense of history I feel when I walk down Ericksen Avenue, admiring the historic little houses now used as offices but retaining their old outward charm.

It’s true that the city did allow one house to be re-done as a multiplex a few years ago, but at the time we were assured it was an exception. No domino effect that would lead to the demise of more homes and change the character of the street would be allowed. Not until now. Now we know that was an old fashioned notion which must give way to progress. There’s money to be made.

I know Winslow is the part of the island designated to accept high density under the Growth Management Act, but isn’t that density supposed to refer to population growth rather than development growth? Shouldn’t we be allowed to fill all the empty apartments, condos, offices and store fronts I see around town before building new ones? If the people aren’t moving here, why make more room for them than they’ll need?

I understand that development means revenue for the city, both during the building process and afterwards through an increased tax source. But what value is there to filling the city’s coffers if we destroy the very things we love about the city that make us want to be here?

I am trying to live in the 21st century. I am trying to adjust my thinking to these new ways. I am trying to stay informed, but the more I read, the more I think Moses didn’t win the people over with his 10 Commandments from on high after all. We are still worshipping the golden calf.

I’m heading down to the senior center now for some coffee, conversation and a sense of balance. I need cheering up.