Heroes Not Zombies

I’ve got a new camera, my first new camera in many years. My old Nikon had started playing up, switching itself off, becoming unresponsive and pretty much every photo I took needed editing afterwards. I’ve gone for a Sony RX100 (can’t for the life of me figure out why camera manufacturers have to give their products such bizarre names, strikes me as a failure of imagination!).

Here’s one of the first photos I’ve taken with it, (yesterday’s pic of Little Owl was taken the same day), and I’m really, really pleased with it. Look at the sharpness of the details.

This photo of a bee seeking nectar and gathering pollen in the process as it buzzes around the flowers of this lovely bramble plant is more than just a pleasing image. In fact, this is the kind of photo to delight me most. I like it for its beauty, but I also like the thought trains it inspires.

Let’s face it, this relationship between the bee and the plant is a superb example of an « integrative relationship ». Remember the definition? An integrative relationship is a mutually beneficial one between two well differentiated parts. This is the essence of health. In fact, it’s the essence of Life. Without these integrative relationships life just couldn’t exist. None of us can survive without others, and without healthy relationships spreading far and wide across a highly diverse web of non-human organisms.

The bee doesn’t have to become more bramble like, nor does the bramble have to become more bee like. It’s not uniformity and sameness which lies at the heart of this success. It’s difference AND the ability to create MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL bonds between them.

Isn’t this a great principle on which to base a society, or, indeed, a civilisation?

We humans haven’t quite managed that yet. We’re still pretty much in the thrall of competition, exploitation, consumption of resources and production of waste.

Mightn’t it be better to swing our attention and energies towards co-operation, mutual benefit, sustainable consumption and the minimisation, if not elimination of waste?

Maybe we need to be a little less arrogant and realise we have a lot to learn from the rest of the natural world.