Heroes Not Zombies

Yesterday I shared a January view from my old apartment. It was very foggy that day, which made the image very atmospheric but hid the mountains. Here’s another view from the same window. This time without fog, and with the sun turning the snow pink.

My views from a top floor window across to Ben Ledi always reminded me of one of the teachings of classical philosophy – the view from on high.

This teaching is sometimes described in terms of climbing a hill and looking down over the whole valley below, or by imagining a flight into space and looking back at the Earth.

It’s the perspective which lets you see a bigger picture. It enables you to be more aware of the contexts and environments.

It’s also the way to see a moment in time within the flow of a longer period (perhaps leading to that other classic teaching – “this too shall pass”)

This is, actually, our natural, first perspective. We begin with an awareness of the whole, and only after that abstract elements, or narrow our focus to reduce the amount of information we want to consider.

Think about that. Reductionism, looking at parts, is not our primary view and doesn’t reveal reality. Reality is whole. It exists invariably intertwined with layers and layers of connections, contexts and environments.

Holistic understanding is our natural default but our culture promotes disconnected views of reality – short term and partial. Maybe that’s why it keeps failing.

I believe our future will be secured by reclaiming our ability to see connections, to take a longer time perspective and by taking the view from on high.