So I’m idly browsing twitter, as you do, and the algorithm’s served me up some guy, talking about whether or not humans are part of nature.
“Ooh, I know a thing or two about that,” says the Giles Ego Construct (the GEC: 📦) and off it goes, reading and nodding.
At one point in the thread, he says:
“We are not separate from the rest of nature…”
📦: [Concurs, nods silently]
Then he goes on…
“And logically, that extends to everything we make. A termite mound and a White Stork’s nest are natural, but so is a car park, a woodland razed to the ground and a stone wall.”
Say what, now?
📦: 😶
📦: 🤔
📦: 😮
📦: 🤯
Because, dear reader, for the Giles Ego Construct 📦 head-canon, that was very much not the case.
As I said in my reply to him,
“This tweet has given me pause for thought, thank you. While seeing humans as inseparable from nature, I have always mentally categorised the outputs of humans (e.g. roads/buildings) as lifeless and ‘non-natural’ but I realise the hypocrisy of this view now!”
(You see, polite discourse on social media is possible 😉)
So now, every time I’m out on my bike, admiring all the non-human-created things that I specifically go out of my way to surround myself with, I’m reminded of this, and I relax into my wrongness.
Between you and me I’ve not even formed a new belief about this one yet. It was only five days ago and I have no idea what to think about it all.
But that in itself is quite nice.
Not knowing. Close cousin of Being Wrong. I like them both.
Anyway, let me know what your Reader Ego Construct 📦 has to say about this, in the comments, below!
💟
Giles
p.s. I can't talk about this without pointing you to this timeless, insightful track from Howard Jones, called Natural:
“Everything around us is natural
Don't fight it
Don't disagree with this and that.
Everything we like and don't like is whole and natural
I know is doesn't feel like it and the world seems wrong
But if we don't like it now then who can we blame
Blame God, be still, find harmony.”
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Giles P Croft
I love being wrong. Being wrong is when misunderstanding falls away.