Humanoids are the Heart of my Hypothesis…
“I certainly feel more like I do now than I did before.”—Me, just now.
Humanoids love the emotional response that accompanies a perceived sense of order. We relish those perfect moments where we can look out and observe everything in its rightful place. We appreciate patterns. We long for the ability to neatly organize everything into clearly defined components with clearly defined relationships and clearly defined dependencies. We obsessively categorize, quantify, and collate the world around us. This is a strategy which quickly proves caustic when applied to the process of governance.
Our initial impulses often belie important hidden truths.
Gardens Grow with Guidance & Generosity.
“When was the last time you attempted to discretely identify, measure, and label every atomic component from which a garden is comprised?”—Also me.
The garden can only be truly appreciated in a holistic sense, and it is only with the continuous commitment of tending the garden that its value is realized. It is through this concerted effort that the purpose of the garden is revealed: to produce. Whether it be flower, fruit, or other foliage; the garden is only of value when it flourishes and grows. We must seek to provide fertile soil, adequate water, correct amounts of sunlight, and—not least of all—proper pruning.
The more we give to the garden, the greater its ability to grow.
LEGO® Succeeds via Sequences & Specifications.
“A LEGO® covered in potting soil is a plastic brick nonetheless.”—Yep, still me.
Contrast this to the way in which we interact with LEGO®. Each piece is an exact duplicate of the last. The explicit expectation is that any individual piece will work with any other. Any incompatibility therein is perceived as a defect. All variance occurs within the confines of an established matrix of possible configurations; it is by definition formulaic in nature. The sum of a structure can be succinctly reduced to a list of the required parts and build steps. Nothing more is needed or relevant, and each structure is static.
No nuance is necessary to communicate the essence of a LEGO® entity.
Thinking in Terms of Landscaping; Not Architecture.
“One cannot simply hand blueprints to a young arborvitae and expect to later return to the perfect image of a glorious shrubbery.”—Yours truly.
We must continually challenge ourselves to recognize and cherish the chaotic nature that is inherent in all things involving humanoids. We cannot succumb to the siren call of process in isolation. Anyone with horticultural tendencies can tell you that gardens have spirits of their own; that there is always an exception to the rule. No two flowers are exactly alike. This is part of the beauty of cultivation: beholding the natural diversity that exists in all living things.
The beauty of a garden comes from its vibrancy, not its conformity.
Evolution is an Essential Element to the Equation.
“Am I the ‘me’ I was yesterday? Are you the ‘you’ I originally knew? How do we know if I’m the ‘me’ you think me to be? Who will we be tomorrow?”—Mhmm.
The landscaper gently guides this variance in a way that strikes balance between the form of the flower, and the function of its presence within the ecosystem of which it is a part. The landscaper respects the unique nature of each plant, and does not ask it to grow in absence of appropriate accommodations. The landscaper celebrates the diverse environmental needs and growth patterns of the various flora of which they have the privilege of cultivating. The landscaper fertilizes, waters, and even prunes or culls as necessary. The landscaper plans around the needs of the seedling, the flower, and the sapling alike. Most of all, the landscaper understands that caring for the garden is an exercise in enthusiastically embracing the evolving needs of its constituents. All of these efforts are merely functions of the same shared goal: increasing the abundance of life.
Be the landscaper; grow the garden.