Written by Kim
First a quote from a highly respected friend.
“No scent is as wonderful as that of freshly dug soil. Oh – the scent of grass and air after a thunderstorm comes close. And I loved having my bare hands right in the soil – I never used gardening gloves unless I had to deal with brambles and such.”
Outwardly this quote celebrates the senses of touch and smell. But in the subconscious it goes much further as sight, taste and hearing also play a part in the complex interaction of sensory perception. Then that sensory kaleidoscope meets with our ability to reason and think, an acknowledgement of being human and living in the real world. A world in which we belong and a world in which we have evolved to inhabit.
Turning soil can be repetitive. That is not to say it is not productive but it can be done to some degree in a state of automation.
Time to dream and explore mind and senses …
Repetition allows the distraction needed to free the mind. As we allow our conscious mind to deal with the ticking clock we escape into the realms of the subconscious.
Digging the new vegetable patch is such a moment.
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Drudgery has been taken away by machines and mass production. We have been freed from many of the hardships of life. Pain has been taken away by drugs. Drugs defined beyond pharmaceuticals. There are many easy options and many opportunities to save oneself from the difficulties of life. Routines can become habits and habits can become addictions and addictions prisons.
Sharing can be an unselfish act. There is a theory that all our actions are, in some way, selfish. In questioning why we do what we do and discerning what is selfish or unselfish we wander into an area that can be difficult to navigate.
Human behaviour has evolved over such a time it has become embedded into our DNA. To question is a natural action and part of that evolution. To question is the basis of all scientific endeavour. Instinctively we know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. We have an inherent moral compass, a compass that can be found wanting in more than one direction. Guilt and selfishness are both destructive emotions.
(Be careful to keep a distance between fork and foot)
Addiction, obsession and dogma will help remove the pain and hardship of questioning. They can produce subconscious arguments that are self-fulfilling, hiding oneself from reality.
There are rational and practical arguments for the removal of mundane matters. The freedom acquired comes with responsibilities and a void to fill.
Consider at least two directions in our paths. Regression or progression, idleness or productivity, retreat or advance, ultimately bringing happiness or sorrow. We may travel in either direction multiple times in a lifetime not always out of choice.
(The soil is full of promise as each clod is turned)
It must always be more important to know ‘how’ one thinks rather than ‘what’ one thinks. That is an argument for the humanities over the sciences. The consequences of literature, art, history, as well as human morality, culture, and values will always trump technology, geology or any of the other ‘ologies’ that deal with ‘what’ we know about our environment.
If only it were that simple. The truth is a balance where the two are inextricably intertwined. A ‘model’ that creates a conflict between two aspects of human endeavour must surely be fundamentally flawed?
Is our method of questioning purpose, or indeed our method of thinking, fundamentally flawed?
(How sweet is the Robin, watching me from the bush: friendship without commitment)
At some point AI will solve the problems of science and so scientists will become ‘technicians’ until even that occupation becomes redundant.
What will we be left with? Will decisions be about what we want to happen, how we want to live, what is our purpose, and basically, who we are or can become? At that point the Technological Age will be over, brought down to that of the Iron Age, and another ‘age’ of human enlightenment will begin. Perhaps a Second Reformation.
On the other hand if we continue on our quest for ultimate technology the real world may be eclipsed by the virtual world. This is already happening with smart phones where a mixed reality of social media and a reliance on apps takes away real world experience, with a thousand emoji. Is mixed reality, then augmented reality, the slippery slope to a loss of real world ability and independence? How appealing is the sound of ‘virtual’ reality, but is it not artificial or synthetic reality? How language matters. How meanings are lost.
As we move towards Christmas and the New Year, time reminds us all that beginnings have ends. Likewise all ends give opportunities for new beginnings. In the human world we have no control over time or the workings of the universe. No one can save us from death but we strive to do our best while we are alive.
(Break down that clod without killing the worm)
Unfortunately there is another consideration to factor in.
Where the frailty and vulnerability of humans has always allowed for plenty of personal mistakes, our weaknesses and ignorance also allow for manipulation, control and predation by those who seek power.
Greed, lust, pride, guilt, fear, dogma: there are plenty of demons. Technology is the new ‘tool’ of the jailer. Not technology itself but our obsession with it. Those controllers design the technological toys to escalate addiction, obsession and reliance.
Are we neglecting our emotional and mental health, cutting away our spiritual roots and corrupting our moral compass for the convenience and comfort afforded by technology? By choosing the deception created by someone else’s reality we ignore the wonders of the real world. In forfeiting our own privacy, freedoms and individual independence, one world eclipses the other.
Information and communication have never been better. The value of temptation is known by those who wield power. They are not saddled with the weight of guilt or the need for balance, their moral compass broke a long time ago.
(Remove that piece of couch grass and the bindweed. Those pernicious weeds will have their own place but not here)
By corrupting and controlling science they control the mother of technology. By owning technology they own those obsessed with technology. The evidence is all around us and becoming clearer by the day. ‘Smart’ is not smart primarily for us to benefit from, but a tool with which to manage us. In the emerging virtual world of the metaverse will we have the colour and diversity of the real world? Will our experiences belong to us? Will limitations, responsibilities and consequences be selective and imposed?
Living in a prison where privacy and independence do not exist, we will eat virtual bread and drink virtual water.
Attempts to understand and deal with mass psychosis is not just a battle with those that wish us harm, and surely they exist, but a spiritual struggle within ourselves. Rediscovering reality and deciding what really matters. Rethinking how we think and asking ourselves “what do we want to become?”
“The Lord grant that we may all be tillers of the soil” (Nikolai Gogol)
We will find our own Xanadu, but it won’t be easy.
As the space ship docks and the final notes of Strauss’s Blue Danube wisp into the ether the tick of the metronome surfaces only to be replaced by the sound of a clock.
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Well, that is the new vegetable patch dug. What now … ah yes: garden compost! Pay attention now …
I missed this comment yesterday and must respond. You must be right to imply humans had a moral compass before the Ten Commandments. The problem I have is possibly in the difference between creationism and the interpretation of who or what God is. It is by no means an easy subject for me. As I do not believe that everything started with a flash of lightening, so to speak, but evolved. That does not preclude the idea that a God created us.
I would like to think that a compromise could be sought in explaining God as nature and thus a natural event that was beyond our ability to consciously understand.
Fundamentally we are on the same page but may have different labels or definitions as to who or what began life.
This is the kind of argument that I believe people should be having but I touch on another issue in the article. That is ‘how we think’. The way to tackle the ‘God’ issue is I believe by changing the basic ‘gang of three’ thinking’ (ie Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.) It is surely out of date.
Thank you Roddy
A day in the Bible is not necessary a 24 hour period. There are four periods of time revealed in the Bible known as Days. These are ; Day of Man which goes back to the flood of Noah in Genesis to the present time in which we are living. The Day of CHRIST is next followed by the Day of the LORD ,which is one thousand years and finally the Day of GOD. In Genesis the six Days of Creation are not necessary each twenty four hours. A friend of mine concluded from his study of the six days of creation that each Day was 0ne hundred years and also the seventh Day was one hundred years, A total of seven hundred years I agree with you that every thing did not start with a burst of lightning as you say. Keep studying. 2 Timothy 2v15 2 Timothy 3 v 16 2 Peter 1 v 21. Blessings. Keep Studying.
My word Pauline you are pointing the way down a rabbit hole. My meaning was innocent where being attuned to one’s environment allows subtleties of spiritual understanding beyond most conscious thinking. That basic understanding would be different for a nomadic Arab than a Japanese fisherman where generations have instilled a natural ability to understand and be at one with their environment. That could be subconscious and ‘embedded’ in their DNA.
The subject is I believe covered by behavioural genetics. The human condition has meant that opportunism idealism and a few other isms have muddied the water. Eugenics is one such a grubby subject where stupid people have attempted to make mileage out of something to suit their ends.
We are all aware of the b******ds who want to genetically modify us with bogus vaccines and the transhumanists who haven’t a clue where it will all end up.
What I would advocate is using your own natural ability to connect with nature, just as we should be supporting our own natural immune system. Anything else is a delay in our journey to fulfil our potentials as human beings.
Find your ‘self’ and be yourself. Dependence on oneself is ‘in’ dependence. That to me is why independence is so important. As individuals we are the smallest units of society and I believe the most important. I think it is quite likely that different tribes do have different moralities but they may be subtle. Sorry I am out of my depth now, and probably when I started. It would be an interesting research subject.
Interesting points made. I do use the Bible for guidance it holds such a wealth of wisdom. However I am not a Christian but I respect others beliefs and appreciate their help. Tolerance is a true virtue and something that is becoming eroded in our world. It is so amazing that many of the answers we need now are there already to be accepted.
What I meant by ‘embedded in our DNA’ was that over thousands of generation behavioural patterns become a part of who we are, certainly at a tribal level. This I believe is a subject that has been studied and shown but I cannot quote any references. Thus there are distinct differences in behavioural patterns from say an Eskimo and an Ethiopian that go beyond nurture. This seems to make perfect sense to me when thinking becomes a reason why some survive and some do not. Thus certain decisions through common sense thinking pass into a tribal DNA. I am quite prepared to be shown to be wrong but that is what I believe.
The thrust of the article was my musing on our basic connection with nature and how that connection is being corrupted or neglected by technology.
It seems to me that we have to pay much more attention to our spirituality.
Thank you for your comments, can I do that?
Oh dear kim. You have got me worried now that even our conscience, our knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong actions, has been modified by evolution. So that different tribes have different moralities.
Doesn’t Genesis deal with this problem? In the garden of Eden mankind was forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge.
Somewhere in the early days of the Christian Church I believe, it was decided that it was knowledge of good and evil that we were forbidden.
That has always puzzled me.
The Human Race had been upon the earth at least 2500 years before the ten commandments were given by GOD to Israel can we logically believe that the human race lived for 100 generations without a moral code? without knowing the difference between right and wrong. Man was made in the image and likeness of GOD Thus a moral image of GOD is stamped upon man , so that GODS. own evaluati0n of right and wrong becomes a part of of the constitution of all human beings. Many men will strive to change this image, even to erase it, but it remains and constantly pricks at man when he does wrong. Thus it is that men who have heard of the Bible have sufficient knowledge of right and wrong with sufficient clarity to remove every excuse from their hearts forever. Seed and Bread , Otis Sellers. Please read Romans chapter 2 verses 14, 15. for more details. Blessings.
Thanks Kim As a keen gardener I recognise and appreciate the therapeutic joys getting into direct contact with the soil.
Yes Kim. Earthworms are beneficial, indeed essential, to aerate the soil. I’ve always avoided harming them. Though I’m too squeamish to pick them up.
Isn’t it strange that we love the Robin who actually eats our friend the earthworm?
‘Human behaviour has evolved over time’ yes. I’m not sure what you mean by embedded into our DNA. Isn’t it the case that natural selection has meant those with certain behaviours have survived and propagated. Those without have died out. Perhaps that is what you meant.
Human morality, culture and values surely, SHOULD RULE, human society, not science and technocracy. Science and technocracy are very valuable but we DO have what seems to be an instinctive knowledge of RIGHT and WRONG.
What I call a CONSCIENCE.
(Well most people have a conscience. Some seem able to ignore it.)
Isn’t it that knowledge of the difference between right and wrong, that is needed to save us, from the nightmare we seem to be moving towards.
Where I’ve said technocracy I should have said technology. Oops, silly me!
More about Conscience note Pauls Letter to the ROMANS chapter 1 verses 18 – 32.
I really should read my bible again Roddy but I suspect rather a lot of us find other things to do!
Please keep on talking on here and write out the passages that are relevant.
I’m sure there are many that DO still apply to ‘today’s world’.
Thank you Pauline for your reply. I was hoping that folk would open their Bibles and read the chapter. I quote verses 18-22. Note the words ,..
Conscience not thine but of the other………. Very true too! Learnt that at Sunday School ….attendance twice every Sunday.!