Every autumn, sometime in November, the leaves fall off and the tree becomes a whispering tree. Rather than hang their wishes from the tree on small strips of paper, as they do during the warmer months, visitors are encouraged to snuggle up to the tree and whisper their wishes to it.
But, come June, the tree buds again and the Hirshhorn provides pencils and little tags to write with and to hang on the tree.
Each day exhibit staff and intern volunteers pluck the tags from the tree.
“We harvest the wishes and send them to the Yoko Ono Peace Tower in Iceland where they become part of a larger collection of wishes that the artist has amassed,” Hirshhorn communications director Gabriel Riera told me in an e-mail.
Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space, some 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean. It was a weapons test, but one that created a man-made light show that has never been equaled — and hopefully never will.