They say, "In the blink of an eye".....the days, weeks, months and years pass by. We see the changes all around us. However, one must ask, "do we see the changes?". Parmenides, who was a senior to Plato by about 25 years, and who influenced Plato dramatically, thought deeply about change. Wikipedia says, "Parmenides claimed that the truth cannot be known through sensory perception. Only Logos will result in the understanding of the truth of the world. This is because the perception of things or appearances (the doxa) is deceptive. Genesis-and-destruction, as Parmenides emphasizes, is illusory, because the underlying material of which a thing is made will still exist after its destruction. What exists must always exist. And we arrive at the knowledge of this underlying, static, and eternal reality (aletheia) through reasoning, not through sense-perception." Now this heavy, I dare say. That which existed always exists? Nothing is disolved, for that which "is" cannot become "nothing".
This concept can be contrasted with the work of Heraclitus, who preceded Parmenides. Wikipedia says about him, "Heraclitus is famous for his insistence on ever-present change in the universe, as stated in his famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice" He believed in the unity of opposites, stating that "the path up and down are one and the same", all existing entities being characterized by pairs of contrary properties. His cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos" (literally, "word", "reason", or "account") has been the subject of numerous interpretations.
All of this is to report that life appears to be changing on the hill. The cedar trees posted above were dug with a kitchen teaspoon from the earth beneath a large cedar tree in Willits in 1985 and placed into 8 ounce paper cups, and later transplanted into the ground above the fruit tree orchard where you see then growing now. These were hand watered, and later put on a drip system and they have survived over these past 25 years. There were many more, but these lived. I myself am not the same person as the one who planted these trees. So, over time, I need to give consideration to the ideas of both Heraclitus and Paramenides. They both may be right, but, I have to give this more reflection. Until then, we will watch the trees continue to grow and become the thermometer for the passage of the years. We shall come to our conclusions as we do.
Then I look at myself and see that the changes of the past eighteen months, are as pervasive and downright earthshaking, as to defy explanation, or at least any sense of logic. But when we are talking about the brain, we need to throw logic out the window.
ReplyDeleteI see your row of trees as the perfect application of the inexorable march of time. Whether you-or I-change, makes no difference to the trees.
Yes, the row of trees is the perfect benchmark for the passage of time. And, as you say, it makes no difference what is going on in the personal world of Mark or Noel.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the predictability of human behavior, we have to throw logic, causality, and all reason right out the window. We are in a class of our own, events in the world happen in spite of what might be happening in my perception. Thanks for weighing in..................
That was cool to learn about the history of those trees. They remind me of the grove below the big house or the poplars along the driveway or up by the road. The changes to that piece of land have been many (think: pond).
ReplyDeleteThe philosophical discussion in your post loses me. Suffice it to say, everything changes (as you have been known to tell me). I used to be afraid or unaware of change but not so much anymore. I wouldn't necessarily say I go so far as to welcome change (except when it comes to spring and summer replacing winter and fall - that is a change I embrace) but I am not as afraid as I once was.
JT, thank you for these insights.......to not be afraid of change is a "change" in and of itself! What I get from the Greek philosophers, and certainly what Plato taught, is that the real world happens in the ideal plane and that this physical reality is a mere shadow of that other ideal realm. We can only perceive the ideal world with our reason (Logos), and thus, if this physical world changes it does not matter, as it was only a reflection of another reality anyway. Anyway, I appreciate our musings about change............
ReplyDeleteThank you Knoel for sharing this photo and your reflections on the subject of change. The trees are beautiful. Mahalo for nurturing them into their present state of being. I look forward to seeing them and all the other amazing changes up on "the land" when I visit later this year!
ReplyDelete