Michael Pollan raises an interesting viewpoint in his TedTalk about the perception of control in nature. He brings across this point by talking about his experience one day with a bee while gardening. Asking himself what he has in common with the bee and how their roles in the garden were similar and different.
"Both of us disseminating the genes of one species and not another. And both of us probably, if I can imagine the bee's point of view, thought we were calling the shots. I had decided what kind of potato to plant... and that bee no doubt assumed that it had decided, 'I'm going for that apple tree, I'm going for that blossom, I'm gonna get the nectar, and then I'm going to leave.' We have a grammar that suggests that's who we are. That we are sovereign subjects in nature, the bee as well as me. I plant the potatoes, I weed the garden, I domesticate the species. But that day it occurred to me what if that grammar is nothing more than a self-serving conceit. Because of course the bee thinks he's in charge, or she's in charge, but we know better. We know that what's going on between the bee and that flower is that the bee had been cleverly manipulated by the flower. When I say manipulated I'm talking about color, scent, pattern, flavor that have lured the bee in. The bee has been cleverly fooled into taking the nectar and picking up some powder on its legs and then going off to the next blossom. The bee is not calling the shots and I realized then I wasn't either. I had been seduced by that potato into spreading its genes giving it a little more habitat."
This idea of the perception of control in nature made me rethink my own experiences in the natural world. It made me think about how other factors could have been illusively in control of my actions and decisions. The question I pose to you is to rethink an experience you have had in nature and think about the control you didn't see, why did you think you were in control? Why do you now realize you weren't in control? How has that perception changed?
(P.S. This could be a cool idea to play around with in a nature journal.)
Our minds both explored this same segment you put about and every interact I have ever had.. Pollan said later in his speech that we could use this to finally understand the anomaly that is darwinism. And this is very interesting point. I am thinking to his idea of watching a bee do its thing. What if that squirrel, that totally looked like it was staring at me, really was. And what his segway about corn having a plan for world domination said about how we interact with the world is very intriguing. Really it tells us that we have been coexisting for years and the one thing we should really be seeing as one of the most important pieces of our lives, is nature.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I think the biggest example is the weather, on a day like today. That's a part of our nature. And really we may think we are prepared for these elements and his ideas. And we think this because we build roads and buildings so they don't flood. We have rain jackets and rain boots to protect ourselves from the elements. But we can't avoid it. We still get wet. There's still puddles. And so if it wasn't for this, we wouldn't be so involved and so full of learning this concept of protecting ourself.
I question myself, what else can we learn, from just where we are and where we live? We are shaped by our culture, by what surrounds us. But how much of who we are is really impacted by the nature around us?