Patterns and Meaning

Aristotle observed that "nature abhors a vacuum." So do people. When things don't make sense, we make meaning of them even if it is erroneous. We go to great lengths to have patterns mean something; to create order. In general, we don't like disorder, chaos, and meaninglessness. Even people who say they like change mean that they like the change that they want.

So, what does it have to do with Aisling? Well, there are these undulations on the land. There is one that runs diagonally across the meadow. It doesn't follow the fall line of the slope and wouldn't be part of a disappeared waterway. I thought for a long time that it was a place where someone placed a waterline to gather water from the creek. Then one day our neighbor suggested that it is was the remnant of an old logging road. It makes complete sense. Truth or not, it does make sense.

There was another line than ran perpendicular to that line that could have been the remnants of a waterway. However, with the snow yesterday, it revealed itself.  In the photo, it runs from the lower right corner to the upper middle. A little bit of snow reveals that a road used go right through this section of the land. What type of vehicle? Horses? What stories could we recreate out of just this one little image? This isn't one of those great mysteries of the universe or about human existence, but it does help to understand this little piece of land that we occupy.

One of the amazing facts about humans is that we are meaning makers. It is incredible that someone can have just a few details and then make sense out of apparent randomness. Sometimes this doesn't serve us too well when we are quick to jump to a conclusion based on what we think should be true. One root of our environmental challenges is that we have a preference to act rather than reflect; to choose/judge rather than wait and see. The lands that we occupy need more of our reflection than action. The conundrum is that the means of production demand us to operate at a speed that doesn't afford a lot of time for reflection. I don't think there is a resolution to this, it is a balance that must be found even if it seems ineffectual. The need to make sense translates into preferring a world that aligns with our sensibilities. We are nearing 7 billion people on this planet and there are 7 billion ways of making sense of it and 7 billion solutions for dealing with the problems. It is amazing that we've lasted as long as we have.