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    Generally True Patterns: A New Natural History of Recognizing Ourselves as a Part of Nature
    Generally True Patterns: A New Natural History of Recognizing Ourselves as a Part of Nature
    Generally True Patterns: A New Natural History of Recognizing Ourselves as a Part of Nature
    Ebook132 pages1 hour

    Generally True Patterns: A New Natural History of Recognizing Ourselves as a Part of Nature

    By David L. Witt

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    There is a widely held belief that we are exempt from the laws of nature. And further, that we can treat the living earth without regard to consequences. Our species may endure, but our purposeful environmental destruction threatens the survival of wild nature and the civilization we have built. We need to examine what might remedy or mitigate the situation and address the underlying cause.

    Understanding nature is of vital importance. The sense of unease that many of us feel in our personal, societal and environmental lives comes out of a disconnection from nature. This disconnection can be addressed through identification of what can be summarized as generally true patterns, a recognition that the physical, biological and social realms operate according to common underlying principles. Patterns demonstrate the endless complexity of nature, but are based on relatively simple rules and once recognized can be applied to the way we live, think and act. Generally true patterns are a model of nature’s architecture. Neither mass nor energy, they encompass both. Building skills in pattern recognition will be of importance to any of us who wish to become more conscious of our place in the world.

    Pattern recognition is deep immersion into how the things, events and processes of the entirety are connected. Patterns represent the dynamical spirit of nature in its forms of chance and creativity pushed forward by instability. The purpose of this book is to identify patterns that demonstrate our connection to the natural world, to replace the person/nature split with a person/nature connection. It is for those of us who have decided to take responsibility for decisions made in our personal and public lives. It is for anyone seeking a mutually healing relationship with nature.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid L. Witt
    Release dateMar 24, 2015
    ISBN9781310662034
    Generally True Patterns: A New Natural History of Recognizing Ourselves as a Part of Nature
    Author

    David L. Witt

    Writer, naturalist, and historian David L. Witt is author of a novel, The Prairie Suite, An old world...a new beginning, and four award winning nonfiction works: Ernest Thompson Seton, The Life and Legacy of an Artist and Conservationist; Taos Moderns: Art of the New; Spirit Ascendant: The Art and Life of Patrociño Barela; and Modernists in Taos from Dasburg to Martin. He is curator of the Seton Legacy Project at the Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Special interest in alpine and tundra botany. Publications at: www.davidlwitt.com. Environmental issues related to The Prairie Suite novel at the blog: www.theprairiesuite.com. The life and legacy of artist/naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton blog at the blog: www.setonlegacyproject.blogspot.com.

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      Book preview

      Generally True Patterns - David L. Witt

      Generally True Patterns

      A New Natural History

      of Recognizing Ourselves

      as a Part of Nature

      By David L. Witt

      Generally True Patterns

      A New Natural History of Recognizing Ourselves as a Part of Nature

      By David L. Witt

      Copyright 2015 David L. Witt

      ISBN: 9781310662034

      Smashwords Edition

      www.theprairiesuite.com

      Brief quotes for reviews ok. Reviews encouraged.

      Unauthorized reproduction: Don’t do it.

      Subjects include: systems thinking, systems theory, systems philosophy, systems analysis, nature, leadership, ecology, natural history, self organization, chaos theory, complexity, change management, emergence, emergent properties, attractors, determinism, and implicate order.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 Patterns: Above All Else, Nature Is Characterized by Movement

      Chapter 2 Historical Connections of the Anthropocene

      Chapter 3 The Search for Boundaries

      Chapter 4 Connection and Separation

      Chapter 5 The Order of Connection/The Connection of Order

      Chapter 6 Organization, Leadership and Imprecision

      Chapter 7 Loss

      Chapter 8 Inclusion

      Generally True Patterns by Chapter

      Glossary of Terms and Concepts Related to Generally True Patterns

      Further Reading

      Credits and Contacts

      Introduction

      There is a widely held belief that we are exempt from the laws of nature. And further, that we can treat the living earth without regard to consequences. Our species may endure, but our purposeful environmental destruction threatens the survival of wild nature and the civilization we have built. We need to examine what might remedy or mitigate the situation and address the underlying cause.

      Understanding nature is of vital importance. The sense of unease that many of us feel in our personal, societal and environmental lives comes out of a disconnection from nature. This disconnection can be addressed through identification of what can be summarized as generally true patterns, a recognition that the physical, biological and social realms operate according to common underlying principles. Patterns demonstrate the endless complexity of nature, but are based on relatively simple rules and once recognized can be applied to the way we live, think and act. Generally true patterns are a model of nature’s architecture. Neither mass nor energy, they encompass both. Building skills in pattern recognition will be of importance to any of us who wish to become more conscious of our place in the world.

      Pattern recognition is deep immersion into how the things, events and processes of the entirety are connected. Patterns represent the dynamical spirit of nature in its forms of chance and creativity pushed forward by instability. The purpose of this book is to identify patterns that demonstrate our connection to the natural world, to replace the person/nature split with a person/nature connection. It is for those of us who have decided to take responsibility for decisions made in our personal and public lives. It is for anyone seeking a mutually healing relationship with nature.

      Works on corporate and government corruption, carbon pollution and climate instability, biodiversity and habitat loss have refuted the belief that the laws of laissez faire prevail over the laws of nature, but not everyone has accepted this message. The poisoning of the environment and our bodies has been noted but without appreciable change in the way we actually live. Our disregard of the natural world has not changed. Warning signs are coming from wild nature. Within a relatively short time major predators such as snow leopards, African lions, and polar bears will likely be gone from the wild. The integrity and carbon sequestering capacity of the Amazonian forests will be compromised beyond repair. Fresh water will become more fought over than oil. The polar air conditioners, required for planetary cooling could wind down dramatically. Our world civilization has not been reconciled to nature and has failed to take its actual processes into account. Unless there is a revolution in our thinking (and consciousness) the predicted disasters may well come about. Pattern recognition could convince us that we are a part of and not separate from the rest of nature. Finding accommodation with the natural world will lead to a better future for all living beings.

      Generally True Patterns is based on my lifetime study of natural history and is informed by academic and professional work in political science, systems philosophy, and history. Essays on environmental issues, as well as a link to my novel on the same subject can be found at www.theprairiesuite.com.

      Chapter 1 Patterns: Above All Else, Nature Is Characterized by Movement

      East of where Santa Monica Boulevard ascends a steep hill carrying its traffic congestion away from the ocean, but before Venice, is (or was) a quieter stretch of beachfront accessible off a little used street ending in a parking lot. A green-lawn hill slopes down from the road to the lot with its five double rows of yellow-lined slots, enough space for 250 vehicles with wide driving lanes. On the other side, a generous space borders the lot for bicyclists and rollerbladers. Beyond this hard ribbon is first cement, then wood-picket fences at the farthest landward encroachment of beach sand. At night this asphalt and sand California neighborhood is deserted.

      One night I was struck by an image of movement. A single figure filled the empty parking lot with her presence. The cold, clear air of mid-winter blew the sound of crashing waves inland. A rollerblade dancer ranged over the black pavement of her personal arena, cutting through the dusk, dressed all in black except for lighter boots of indistinguishable color. She made an ice-skater’s moves, rolling backwards, then changing directions rapidly or turning in slow twirls. I followed her movement through space and time and a chiaroscuro of shadow and spotlights of orange mercury vapor lights. She was a lean, lithe athlete wearing protective kneepads for which, in her perfection of movement, she had no need.

      She experienced a moment of self-consciousness as I passed by, like a wild creature slowing to watchful hesitation at the approach of something novel or dangerous. I disappeared from her sight beneath the cover of trees that pressed in on either side of a steep stair where I was too captivated by her to continue on my way. She resumed her entrancing motion, dancing unhurried, graceful, as if in time to the rhythm of waves as darkness gradually overtook the scene. Finally she made use of only a small area, circling arms swinging out, one with the ongoing rush of water. She was alone, but was not a lonely figure; she seemed the epitome of uninhibited freedom, experiencing it like a meditation. I felt the need to write down every nuance of this choreography, scribbling notes that added up to no more than event description. She filled that parking lot with her moving presence; later, illuminated by a full moon, but without her, the place seemed unbearably bleak.

      I have been a frequent and conscious observer of motion.

      One late winter night, driving southward through Colorado toward the New Mexico state line, I watched the moon, two days past full, over the shoulder of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range looming to the east. The moon’s rising, from my perspective, left it riding on a long ridge that rose gradually to the south, matching and holding the moon rise to a steady grazing of the ridge top so that a constant march of saw tooth forms ran across the moon seemingly going north as I headed south. Because of the winter angle of moon to earth, my driving schedule coordinated accidentally with the changing relation between the increasing height of mountain summits and the rise and fall of the highway. I saw the moon rise and set dozens of times.

      A narrow ridgeline divides north from south at 12,000’ (3660m) above Williams Lake near Taos, New Mexico. One summer’s day, although windless to the north, gale force winds assailed the south slope with an eye of tension maybe two paces across separating calm from storm. I lay down on the rocky surface, the cusp of the wind and no-wind worlds, a narrow summit between precipitous cliffs on either side. I closed my eyes for a time, and then looked straight up. Just above, little more than arm’s reach above me, a peregrine falcon rode the backward crested curl of wind wave, which, striking the south-facing slope, fell back on itself rather than crossing the ridge. The falcon achieved perfect harmony, motionless but for wind-ruffled outstretched wing and tail tips. Then it plummeted downward blindingly fast before disappearing. A poetic naturalist observing this event might have spoken of it as a demonstration of flow. A physicist could have remarked on the non-linear

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