11 Comments
User's avatar
Sheryl White's avatar

Touching grass wet or dry will always be my preference!

I have aeen those little white flowers with the yellow centers before...what are they?

Erik Hogan's avatar

I have no idea what those flowers are! I’ll have to do some research!

Sheryl White's avatar

Carolina Horsenettle! I remember where I saw it now. When I was in South Carolina for two months, I would take walks in my friend's neighborhood.

Erik Hogan's avatar

Oh nice! Many years ago I had a great wildflower ID book called Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. I’ve lost it, though. Never seen another book as good.

Brittany Polat's avatar

Really beautiful and wise! I love your celebration of nature the way it is. Thank you for sharing these thoughts and photos.

Erik Hogan's avatar

That means a lot Brittany! Thanks so much!

Baird Brightman's avatar

Great photos and observations, Erik! 👏

I’m always happy to see Darwin’s model of evolution laid out clearly. It’s my go-to paradigm for understanding human nature. I might quibble a bit with your words “divine spark of rationality”. We are very adaptable, but rational (guided by strong evidence)? Maybe not so much. To quote EO Wilson: “People would rather believe than know.”

Erik Hogan's avatar

Good points Baird! The phrase comes from Stoicism, but I believe I should have used ‘reason’ in place of ‘rationality.’ Humans do think, although within the opacity of life almost all insight and discovery comes from experimentation and doing. The rational understanding come later.

Thanks for the perspective!

Baird Brightman's avatar

“Experimentation and doing.” Yes, that’s the way! I found that when I made a recommendation to a client and framed it as “Let’s do a X week experiment with this and then review the results”, people were much more open to trying it out.

Vic Rain's avatar

This was a lovely read accompanied by beautiful pictures! The discomfort of being wet walking through the grass. Yes! The fear of discomfort is real though, I observe it all the time when taking people on hikes. Every time it rains half of them complain… but what about the fact that you’re more vividly immersed into the experience? More grounded. More here. Its hard to explain but you’ve given me a thread to follow! Thank you! 😊💜

Erik Hogan's avatar

The insistence on comfort at all time really is our modern curse. Humans are built to thrive with a bit of disorder and adversity. Maybe the absence of it is actually the cause of feeling a lack of meaning in life?

Thanks Vic! Great comment and yes, a fascinating thread to follow!