Isn’t this the most extraordinary plant? I came across this a few years ago and I don’t know what it is. I suspect it may be a plant which has the common name “honesty”. Do you know it? It has delicate paper like leaves, or petals, I’m not sure which. They are semi-transparent and you can see a couple of seeds held in the middle of each one. Well, this looks like that plant once the substance of the leaf/flower (which is it?) has gone, freeing the seeds to find new ground to grow on. What’s left is this almost skeleton of structure which looks like a small, beautifully crafted sculpture of rings attached to a central stalk.
When I look at this I see what seems to be a collection of lenses. I want to get down beside it and peer through them to see what I can see. I imagine they might let me see what’s invisible.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. The essential is invisible to the eye.
The Little Prince. Saint Exupery
I’ve just finished reading The Nutmeg’s Curse, by Amitav Ghosh. In that book he argues for a “vitalist politics” to counter the dominant “mechanistic” one. Although his book is a critique of colonialism, capitalism and neoliberalism, he doesn’t adopt a Left/Right position but instead contrasts the materialist/mechanical view which regards the Earth and its living forms as stuff and resources to be conquered, consumed and grabbed with an animist one which sees our planet as one vast interconnected living being, where we emerge, briefly, within the cycles of this life world.
His description of the actions of the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th Century is horrifying. He shows how the mechanistic/materialist beliefs and attitudes they had, created the structures which supported their use of genocide, slavery and destruction for short term profit. And he shows cycle after cycle of similar behaviours across the planet in the last four centuries leading us to our present crises of climate change, wars and extreme inequality.
This mechanical/materialist view of the works isn’t working out too well, is it? Maybe it’s time to see reality more clearly, to become more aware of what’s invisible – life, love, meaning, purpose, beauty and wonder – and change our priorities to find how we can play a part in enabling Planet Earth to survive and thrive.
Heroes Not Zombies 
Bob, this post is a much needed reminder to me to get back to reading Amitav Ghosh. Several years ago I read the first two of his Ibis trilogy -Sea of Poppies, and River of Smoke – both wonderful reads. Never got round to reading the third, Flood of Fire, even though it’s been out since 2015. So an immediate resolve to get it, and also The Nutmeg’s Curse, and to do so in proper book form, not just as an iPad download.
I have read a bit about Dutch colonial history. The Netherlands is regarded today as a very peaceful, laid back, inclusive country, but its colonial record in the East Indies was just as bad as other imperial powers. And I do like your quote from Saint Exupery.
I haven’t read any of that trilogy Martin but I might now!
That particular quote from The Little Prince is one of my all time favourites…..but there are LOTS of great lines in The Little Prince!