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RE: Great Botanical Illustrators - Sydney Parkinson
I have often wondered what it would have been like to be living back then. Life expectancy was pretty poor, but certain individuals seemed to be able to pack a lot of living and accomplishment into a few short years.
What I'm missing is the feeling that we possess enough skills/knowledge to handle tasks.
It's a good feeling when you know how to produce food, how to build tools, how to repair machines and buildings.
I used to have that feeling while I was younger as my country was lagging behind for about 50 years.
A simple sense of competence, sustainability and accomplisment.
Today, in everyday life (and especially in academia), I feel that I'm powerless. Feeling that I'm nothing but a small bolt embedded into the giant machine.
I never feel that I know enough. I know that I can't do anything from start to finish and there is no real accomplishment.
The world itself also became too uniform. The same food, clothes, customs... There is almost nothing to spark our imagination and desire to travel and explore.
It would be fantastic to experience what those generations from the XVIII and XIX century experienced.
Awesome comment. Thanks. We are all much more specialized these days. Collaboration helps overcome the feeling of not knowing enough. Your observation that many of us do not know how to produce food, repair machinery, build tools etc is very much appreciated. This is something that I am also concerned about for the future of humanity if, for example, a cataclysm occurred. The explorers and discoveres of the 1700's would be much better prepared.