Notions
June 24, 2013 / Find Your Place In It
Heard at Bryce National Park, following a visit to the Grand Canyon: “It’s just rocks. I am tired of seeing just rocks.” Imagine all the things on our planet. Bring each into your mind’s eye, then imagine each one as a dot, its own dot, but just a very tiny dot. Here are… Read More
June 10, 2013 / Wordsworth Saw It—Do You?
Earth hath not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky; All… Read More
May 24, 2013 / Making the Familiar Strange, and Vice Versa
Maybe you’ve heard of a system called Synectics, which is used sometimes by businesses or others to enhance creative thinking and problem-solving. The idea is to try to make the familiar seem strange and the strange, familiar. It’s a way of attempting to see without prejudice,… Read More
May 08, 2013 / The Farmer’s Land
Once upon a time there was a young farmer. He owned a large farm of many acres, and although he had to work very hard, he loved his land and loved caring for it. He knew every little hillock and valley of his farm, and every plant that grew on it, and all the animals that lived there, too. As… Read More
April 29, 2013 / “The Danger of a Single Story”
Not my thought, but that of the Nigerian writer of extraordinary books who is named Chimamanda Adichie. In a TED talk (which you can view on YouTube), she warns us about this danger. She grew up, in Nigeria, in a household with professional parents and lots of books. They drove cars, and had… Read More
April 15, 2013 / What Can You Learn From Travel? - 2 - Nature’s Ways
Those of the living natural world—plants and animals--(as opposed to the non-living, such as rocks) must solve the same problems as humans: getting nourishment and water, protecting against threats, reproducing. One excitement of seeing many landscapes, many different faunae and florae, is… Read More
April 08, 2013 / What Can You Learn From Travel? - 1 - Humans’ Ways
It seems that there is a finite number of ways which humans can devise to solve the ancient problems of needing food and water, shelter and protection, and making the next generation. And the more you travel, the oftener you may find yourself saying, with some chagrin, Oh, these folks are doing… Read More
April 08, 2013 / The Peculiar Torment of Travel
What a strange word to use: “torment.” Very many years ago, PBS presented a series called River Journeys, in which various somewhat well-known people made trips along very well-known rivers, and reported on their experiences. These were not sanitized trips, at least the parts shown… Read More
February 01, 2013 / What is a “Place?”
A long time ago, on a game drive in Tanzania, I asked our guide, “How do the people find their way around? It all looks the same to me.” He replied, justifiably impatient (for I was so ignorant in those days), “They’ve lived here all their lives; they recognize… Read More
January 21, 2013 / To Behold It We Are Here
Joyfully, a patient lover, Mankind’s eager spirit strove To unravel and discover How creative Nature wove. It revealed that one eternal Essence permeated all, In the grains of shell and kernel, At the heart of great and small, Always changing, and yet holding Things together far and near.… Read More