Will, I think you've uncovered some of your frustrations with others by articulating your own feelings about the new paradigm. Proposal #1: When encountering or contemplating major change, we can't lead with an intellectual response (confirmed by McGilchrist) but need to seek an emotional response. As Immordino-Yang would suggest, we won't get to a new intellectual place without settling the emotional piece first. That's why education is not changing. The alternative doesn't "feel right" to many educators. Proposal #2: In the case of change that spans all aspects of our lives, the emotional acceptance needs the support of being open to new relationships (they're not really new, but the culture made it difficult to see those relationships). So you and your tree need to spend more time together. At our age, that's a tall order. So woo-wee is a big step because it is you giving yourself emotional permission to look at things differently, and the phrase is the release of anxiety and stress that comes with unburdening yourself of cognitive dissonance in the existing culture.
With genuine respect to Proposal #1, I would't necessarily exclude leading with the intellect as a path to emotional and ontological entanglement. In my experience, as a scientist, I found taking the intellectual (even reductionistic) approach more than adequate to trigger an unavoidable, overwhelming, emotional understanding and abiding sense of connection to the world.
Perhaps it's something like the likely misattributed quote of Pasteur: “A bit of science distances one from God, but much science nears one to Him.”
FWIW, I agree wholeheartedly with everything else you wrote.
Will, I think you've uncovered some of your frustrations with others by articulating your own feelings about the new paradigm. Proposal #1: When encountering or contemplating major change, we can't lead with an intellectual response (confirmed by McGilchrist) but need to seek an emotional response. As Immordino-Yang would suggest, we won't get to a new intellectual place without settling the emotional piece first. That's why education is not changing. The alternative doesn't "feel right" to many educators. Proposal #2: In the case of change that spans all aspects of our lives, the emotional acceptance needs the support of being open to new relationships (they're not really new, but the culture made it difficult to see those relationships). So you and your tree need to spend more time together. At our age, that's a tall order. So woo-wee is a big step because it is you giving yourself emotional permission to look at things differently, and the phrase is the release of anxiety and stress that comes with unburdening yourself of cognitive dissonance in the existing culture.
With genuine respect to Proposal #1, I would't necessarily exclude leading with the intellect as a path to emotional and ontological entanglement. In my experience, as a scientist, I found taking the intellectual (even reductionistic) approach more than adequate to trigger an unavoidable, overwhelming, emotional understanding and abiding sense of connection to the world.
Perhaps it's something like the likely misattributed quote of Pasteur: “A bit of science distances one from God, but much science nears one to Him.”
FWIW, I agree wholeheartedly with everything else you wrote.
Love this. Thanks, Joel. It is in the feels, no doubt.
Just found this reframing that I really like as well:
From "Life on Earth" to "Life as Earth."
Got a little woo-wee tingle from that...