RE: Wonder of the Earth and Sky: Seasons
With this theme you touched one of the main threads of my thinking and contemplation. The uncertainty. I find your - supposedly - naive question about why the leaf knows when it "should" fall particularly charming. How wonderful to see such a question formulated. To illuminate the wonders of all life as not absolutely knowable and to always position our knowledge relative to what we assume to be certain, a pleasant side of human thinking. Your contribution also implies that the question of guilt for a climatic change should not be sought in human activity, even if human activity certainly has an influence. Through the millennia of our own history we hopefully learn that we are very often wrong, just as we sometimes make a more accurate assessment.
Therefore I take the sister of "uncertainty" on board, "probability". This one assumes that it would probably be better to give more time to the living things on our planet, to consider the long-established things that have been formed in millennia or millions of years with more respect and consideration.
As living beings we humans are embedded in the organism of our planet. The ignorance that often torments people may change with this view in agreement that we are probably dealing with a form of intelligence that we will never fully understand, probably also because it is beyond our dimension. Not knowing seems to be a torture for many. Nevertheless, nature and cosmos is our greatest source of inspiration and we often seem to have already come a long way. However, I believe that every solution to an alleged problem creates its own new challenges.
I wish we were a little slower and not so hasty beings. The seasons are a good anchor for recognizing what is fleeting and what is freshly unfolding again. Birth and death, one reality.
That not only the earths tilt, the cosmic motions, you found out, that "smoke" influences creatures to do their thing :D what a funny result on your research.
Thank you for this beautiful and refreshing blog. I remember you saying that you want do do something with the leaf. Here you are. Well done!
Hello Erika,
So nice to see you here. Happy New Year!
Oh, yes, a complicated cosmos, which is why starting with a single leaf simplified the challenge for me. As I grow older, I realize the 'big things' are beyond my reach and comprehension. So I start with what seems 'real', what I seem to be able to affect. But then, of course, when we take action, intending to do good, we've no way of knowing the full consequences of that action. I know you agree with this. Nothing is simple, but we can't throw up our hands and become passive. So we humble move forward. Which, again, is why a single leaf was such a great start for me.
I'm glad you remember my leaf. Funny, the things that inspire us, if we--as you suggest--slow down and are not so "hasty". Of course, with the immediate pressure of life beyond me (I don't have to earn a living or raise family), I can indulge in a more casual lifestyle. Not so easy if one is obliged to produce.
Then, again, I have other challenges--related to circumstance--and I can choose to be distracted by these or to relax and go with the flow of life. I try to do the later. Again, seasons are an excellent reflection for encouraging this perspective.
Thank you for your thoughtful response. A New Year's gift to read your words.
Love,
AG
If there would be a personal God, this entity would probably wonder. We humans could have the most wonderful times on this planet in coexistence with all others. Earth has all the living beings need to have. We could relax way more than we do. Still, we seem to be such an angst creature. ...
I would like to contradict a little your well known expression "to throw up hands and become passive", though I of course know, how you mean it.:) I think we are the least passive species ever. There is no laziness involved in humans. Even if they don't move they are busy. I don't know a single passive human. Do you? ;-))
P.S. I sent you my happy new years wish on discord,
bye my friend, it was a pleasure reading this post.
I was listening to a YouTube video last night, and one of the speakers said that humans are the only creatures who blush. I don't know if that's true, but he was saying what you are suggesting: we have angst. We worry and reflect. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just 'chill'?
Do I know a single passive human? No...even when they are apparently passive, they reflect and worry. But I do know submissive people. People who aren't proactive, who follow the drift. Whatever wind blows their way, it takes them along. This is a kind of passivity, a lack of resistance. I don't think you and I ever suffer from that. While we are not confrontational (I'm not at all), still, I am not carried away by anyone else's agenda--not when something is important. Of course, so much is not important. I go with the flow, in that case.
Thank you for your kind words about my blog. I have two more in mind, though these I imagine will be less fun, less artistic. Topics I would like to discuss, though perhaps no one wants to read about them :))
Happy New Year, dear Erika, although already I am growing accustomed to 2020.
Affection and hugs from wintry New York,
AG