Monday, May 16, 2016

Hey!




I made it safely to Blytheville, Arkansas this afternoon and am settling down for the night. On the way I was listening to some talks on Taoism and physics, and the above quote from semanticist Alfred Korzybski came up. At the moment I heard it, I was driving through Indiana. I glanced at the GPS screen on the dash and saw that, as helpful as that schematic was, it bore scant resemblance to the scenery outside the car windows. 

The scenery didn't look like that photo, either, obviously!
Maps are useful, but they show very little of the whole truth. Even photographs are cropped and don't show all there is. 

The same can be said about lots of things, like the labels we put on people. The labels I put on people. Maybe the labels they put on themselves, for that matter. The labels we put on ourselves.

I immediately saw how other people need to realize this, but it took a bit longer to see that I have a lot to learn about it, too. 

Maybe for the rest of my drive to Texas, I will just listen to a murder mystery.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whatcha listen to?
Kato

Michael Dodd said...

The Tao of Physices by Fritzjof Capra, three CDs"An explorations of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism."

Interesting so far, but I think it fails to do justice to either physics or mysticism.

At any rate, I already learned one thing and that suffices to make it worth my while.

Anonymous said...

That sounds ridiculously obtuse and unintentionally funny.
Kato

Moving with Mitchell said...

Good lessons/good reminders. Enjoy the territory.