Two perspectives
Monday, 25 September 2006
Nature’s timelessness
The only timelessness in nature is the timelessness of change.
—Verlyn Klinkenborg, NYT
Remember when the museum displays changed from the dioramas prominent in the 1950’s to portray sequential change, for example, in the temporate forest ecology, with the last frame a “climax�? forest? I find it doubtful that many European, Asian, or African curators would adopt such a position, being well aware that most of the habitable terrestrial landscape has been significantly human-modified for thousands of years. We could adopt such a naïve position here in the New World, convincing ourselves to gloss over the processes of constant change we observe everyday in the landscape around us—starting with the seasons, consequences of strong weather (drought, rain, snow), and everyday life-and-death processes.
The sentence just before that quote above is:
Every view (especially one that is nearly empty of people) has a history.
In other words, the present is a product of the past. Or, in scientific terms, never forget the effect of time in any analysis.
Rant!
A postcard-sized advertisement tag line advises you can “Remove your junk�? with some company’s help. Is it not a huge irony that this ad was tucked in a zippy sandwich bag with some gravel and tossed in driveway after driveway? Is not that same company assuring you will have more junque to toss, and have to do it yourself?
Three perspectives?
The photographer’s? The ant’s? The flower’s?