Heroes Not Zombies

Having travelled in the south of France quite a lot over the years I have a number of photos of lavender fields. When I looked at this one yesterday I was struck by how the pretty much parallel rows of the one crop reminded me of the vineyards which shape the landscape around where I live now.

I was also struck by the sheer beauty of a field of lavender. I know it’s an image which has been used on calendars, postcards and posters for many years, but it still strikes me as beautiful.

However, a third thought popped up with this image today. I write a lot about diversity, difference and uniqueness. And whilst I think those are qualities which lie at the heart of an appreciation of reality, an image like this reminds me of how we like similarities too.

There’s a particular appeal coming from the impression that what I see here are rows and rows and rows of the same plant…..so many rows, and such long rows, that they fill the breadth and depth of the image. Now, of course, it’s not all the “same” plant…..every single plant remains unique, but they are so similar that their differences fade in significance. And that’s what life is like. That’s why we have this super power of being able to recognise patterns, categorise them and store them in our memories. The ability to see the features which individuals share allows us to see a group, a field, of a landscape, as a whole.

You know me by now…..”and not or”……..I absolutely believe we need to see the whole AND the particular. But I thought this beautiful image was a good reminder of the importance of seeing similarities, especially in the context of me writing so much about difference.