Dragongate: Darwin Revisited.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Darwin Revisited.

Darwin revisited.

A deer stands high on a rock bluff watching me wind my way slowly up a narrow wet trail. I feel watched as I walk deeper into the back-country of Ruckle Park and so when a falling branch crashes into the salal, just behind me I spin around with my eyes bugging out! Just a branch, but some part of me ( the scaredy-cat part) has said “Cougar!”

With my pack on my back and my camera tucked into the front of my rainjacket I am venturing out today into this rain-soaked mixed forest that has been a park for many years. There are the visible remains of big rotten stumps and the half hidden skid roads of old logging shows, but all has been repopulated by a younger forest growing in any spot available amid rocky knolls and swampy hollows. Young skinny and magnificently mature straight firs, stunted and twisted ones, cedars, big broadleaf maples, alders, acres of understory salal and ocean spray. Still standing dead snags, uprooted tree trunks and broken bits are lying all around in the process of turning back into soil. This is a lush and tangled rainforest where a step off the path could get one lost (or gobbled up) in short order. And yet this living forest in all its wild complexity is very beautiful on this overcast September morning.

We are all familiar with Darwin's survival of the fittest - the fittest being not the strongest or smartest but the most adaptable to change – and certainly that is one way to understand the complexity of the landscape, but today I see something more nuanced. This whole community of flora and fauna exists through co-operation, through acting as one entity, not as one group pitted against another. Perhaps we have something to learn here, social Darwinism* understood through another lens.

*Social Darwinism - An attempt to apply a biological theory to human cultures. Not a good idea. For example in Victorian Britain when the theory of survival of the fittest was first introduced it was co-opted to support ideas of racial, national and social superiority with a Victorian gentleman at the top of the evolutionary ladder, naturally.
It has been, and is still being used in the world of business, politics, religion, etc. Just too convenient, even though the original theory did not apply to cultural matters at all.
Next time you hear a businessman talking about the race for the top or politicians talking about a whites only policy, or one particular religion being the right one for the country you will be hearing social Darwinism alive and well.

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Perceptive quotes.

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth "You owe me." Look what happens with a love like that. It lights up the whole sky. Hafiz ( the Gift.)
A word of advice: Don`t paint too much direct from nature. Art is an abstraction! Study nature, then brood on it and think more of the creation which will result, which is the only way to ascend towards God - to create like our divine master. Paul Gauguin.
...a thing that is not love or hate or pity or scorn, but the very breath of life, fierce and coming from far away, bringing into human life the vastness and fearful passionless force of non-human things. Bertrand Russell.
It`s not the strongest of a species, or the most intelligent that survives, but the ones most responsive to change. Charles Darwin.
The entire earth is the true human body. Dogan ( a 13th century Buddist.)
As an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood. the wise shape their lives. The Dhammapada.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived. Thoreau.
Freedom is not something that can be given, it can only be found inside people. Honeymoon in Purda. Alison Wearing.
I unsettle all things.... People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there hope for them. R.W. Emerson.
A traveller! I love his title. A traveller is to be revered as such. His profession is the best of our life. Thoreau.
What matters it what went before or after? Now with myself I will begin and end. A Certain Justice. PD James.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. William Blake.
We were crossing the great dark valley of a fairy-tale, the valley of ordeal. LIke the prince in the tale, we must meet the test without succor. Failure here would not be forgiven. We were in the lap of the inexorable Gods. Wind, Sand and Stars. Saint Exupery.
My dancing, my drinking, and singing weave me the mat on which my soul will sleep in the world of the spirits. The Way of the Sacred. by Francis Huxley.
PRAYER. All steps, all moves, each spoon lifted to the mouth, every said word, all thought. Kevin Bezner
What happens[to a creative person] is a continual surrender of himself as he is to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self sacrifice,a continual extinction of personality. T.S. Elliot.
It was the greatest moment of my life. I had hope. I had witnessed small triumph over big. I was not powerless. Remember always, first with the head and then with the heart. Without both, I`m telling you, plans are useless! The Power of One. Bryce Courtnay.
We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart. Natalie Goldberg. Writing down the Bones.
Your little will can`t do anything. It takes great determination. Great determination doesn`t mean just you making an effort. It means the whole universe is behind you - the birds, trees, sky, moon, and ten directions. Writing Down the Bones. by Natalie Goldberg.
With all your science can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into the soul? Thoreau.
I am a writer who came from a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within. Eudora Welty.
Drawing turns the creative mind to expose its workings. Drawing discloses the heart of visual thought, coaleses spirit and perception, conjures imagination; drawing is an act of meditation. by Edward Hill in The Language of Drawing.
By what men think, we create the world around us, daily new. Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The only way of "mastering" one`s material is to abandon the whole concept of mastery and to co-operate with it in love: whosoever will be a lord of life, let him be its servant. Dorothy Sayer.
When we move towards our own creativity, we move toward our creator...our creativity and our spirituality are so closely interconnected they are one and the same. Maker or creator are the terms for artist. We are creations and are intended, in turn, to be creative ourselves. Finding Water. by Julia Cameron.
Emptiness calls fulfillment. Paksenarrion.
Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophesy, and religion - all in one. John Ruskin.
What we do in our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are. George Eastman.
The beauty of things- is in the beholders brain- the human minds translation of their transhuman intrinsic value. Jeffers.
The biggest danger, that of loosing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife etc., is bound to be noticed. Soren Kierkegaard.
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. Jung.
... and we know that the enormous invulnerability of things is the face of God, to live gladly in its presence, and to die without grief or fear knowing it survives us. Jeffers.
The tone of nature is related to what human beings call "grief". What Lucretius called "the tears of things", what in Japanese poetry is called "mono no aware", the slender sadness. Robert Bly..
The unconscious itself is neither tricky nor evil - it is nature, both beautiful and terrible ----. The best way of dealing with the unconscoius is the creative way - --- Carl Jung.
In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these things and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. Walden. Thoreau.
One who never turned his back but marched breast forward. Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right was worsted [that] wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better. Sleep to wake. from Epilogue by Swinburne. ( about Browning)
I learned not to fear infinity, the far field, the windy cliffs of forever, the dying of time in the white light of tomorrow, the wheel turned away from itself, the sprawl of the wave, the on-coming water. Theodore Roethke.
If one advances confidently of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Thoreau.
True spontaneity is the result of freedom and freedom is possible only through knowledge. Tao.
Myth is the revelation of a divine life in man. It is not we who invent myth, rather it speaks to us as a word of God. Jung.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. St- Exupery
"In darker night, brighter stars. In greater fear, greater courage." Paksenarrion.
The story is like the wind.... It comes from a far off place and we feel it. L. Van der Post.
The greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe- Love that ,not man apart from that. Robinson Jeffers.
There are invisible ways of conveyance by which some great thing doeth touch our souls. Thomas Trahearne.
We are not adventurous because we think we have so much to lose. J D Khyentse
Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with truth. Thich Naat Hanh.
The mystical is not how the world is but that it is . Ludwig Wittenstein.
To transcend the ego (civilized society is a kind of mass ego) is to go beyond society as well. Outwardly, the equivalent of the unconcious is the wilderness: both of these terms meet, one step even further on, as one. Gary Snyder.
We have to risk life to get into life, then it takes on colour, otherwize we might as well read a book. Carl Jung.
Ours was the fate of the restless wanderer; the skyline is never an end but only a bound and something - so much - lies beyond. Miles Smeeton..

Jetsam and Flotsam.

CHARLIE`S CHARTS of POLYNESIA. by Charles E. Wood. One of a series, don`t leave home without some good cruising guides of the places you will (or may) visit. Thank you Charlie! .
OFSHORE CRUISING ENCYCLOPEDIA. Steve and Linda Dashew. Like most cruising people the Dashews have definite opinions. This book is high end cruising but I found it invaluable as a resource while rebuilding Shiriri and planning for offshore. There is always a cheaper way if you first understand the theory.
SEA OF CORTEZ. by John Steinbeck. The intro. tells the story of his friend Doc`s. death when his car meets the train. We all feel bad about this. The log from the Sea of Cortez has always been a favourite of mine. It tells of a biological collecting expedition by Steinbeck, Doc. and crew to the Gulf of California in the 1940`s. A lovely book!
WORLD CRUISING ROUTES. Jimmy Cornell. The bible of those planning voyages and the book for dreaming of them even if you don`t have a boat!
THE COMPLETE BOOK OF ANCHORING AND MOORING. Earl R. Heinz. Anchoring is just about the most important skill we learned and we could n`t help but practice lots
CARVING FIGURHEADS AND & OTHER NAUTICAL DESIGNS. by Alan & Gill Bridgewater. I used this book for carved name boards and figurehead. If you aspire to carving for your boat, this is a useful book with lots of step by step instructions.
SAILMAKERS APPRENTICE. A guide for the self reliant sailor. Emiliano Marino. Between Chapelle and Marino I found everything I needed to know about designing the sails for Shiriri..
YACHT DESIGNING AND PLANNING. Howard Chapelle. As Shiriri was a Chapelle Fisherman schooner design, I found this book very useful.
THE CHINESE SAILING RIG. Designing and building your own. by Derek Van Loan and Don Haggerty. The useful guide to making pole masts.
HIGH ENDEAVOURS -The extraordinary life and adventures of Miles and Beryl Smeeton. by Miles Clark. Really, all we had to do was follow.
VOYAGING ON A SMALL INCOME. by Annie Hill. A seminal book for our voyaging plans. Her approach to life influenced how we designed Shiriri and how we lived on board.
BIJABOJI by Betty Lowman Carey. (North to Alaska by Oar.) The real stimulus to my canoe rebuilding project.