I have been thinking about our human propensity to want standardization and uniformity. We desire sameness, to be around those who look like us, think like us, believe the same things as us. With sameness comes inclusion and acceptance and safety but also apathy and boredom. In contrast, when you examine the biological world, it is filled with variability.
Simply look at the diversity of the natural world around you and note how it is ever changing, adapting, and evolving. No black and white here: nature embraces the complexity of grey. Such heterogeneity and ongoing adaptation may be to our benefit, or not, yet cannot help but inspire and challenge us to adapt in response.
Last weekend, I attended the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello. Monticello immerses you in the complex life of Thomas Jefferson, often called America's first botanist. I wandered through the flower and vegetable gardens, grape vines, orchard, and woodlands. With camera in hand, I snapped images of the diversity of beauty around me despite the intense heat.
Throughout my visit, I kept repeating Ralph Waldo Emerson's words, "Scatter joy!" I was reminded of the power of a single seed, the challenges a seedling faces as it bursts from the soil, and the potential of the diversity of living things to coexist and elicit happiness. Nothing like planting a seed and embracing difference.
Looking for the Differences
Tom Hennen
I am struck by the
otherness of things rather than their same-
ness. The way a tiny pile of snow perches in the crook of a
branch in the tall pine, away by itself, high enough not to be
noticed by people, out of reach of stray dogs. It leans against
the scaly pine bark, busy at some existence that does not
need me.
ness. The way a tiny pile of snow perches in the crook of a
branch in the tall pine, away by itself, high enough not to be
noticed by people, out of reach of stray dogs. It leans against
the scaly pine bark, busy at some existence that does not
need me.
It is the differences
of objects that I love, that lift me toward
the rest of the universe, that amaze me. That each thing on
earth has its own soul, its own life, that each tree, each clod is
filled with the mud of its own star. I watch where I step and see
that the fallen leaf, old broken grass, an icy stone are placed in
exactly the right spot on the earth, carefully, royalty in their
own country.
the rest of the universe, that amaze me. That each thing on
earth has its own soul, its own life, that each tree, each clod is
filled with the mud of its own star. I watch where I step and see
that the fallen leaf, old broken grass, an icy stone are placed in
exactly the right spot on the earth, carefully, royalty in their
own country.
