Appreciating beauty and finding things beautiful — and allowing oneself to love nature such that even more beauty can be illuminated — are so important, and ever more difficult when various forces work to leech away our precious attention. In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell draws from Martin Buber's theory of the It-Thou dichotomy of how we (humans) address existence. Using the example of a tree, an "I-it" relation objectifies the tree, fitting it into heuristics and conceiving of it only in terms bound by our lived experience. An "I-Thou" encounter allows us to acknowledge the "absolute equality" of the other, and thus gives space to fully attend to the tree — or, as Dass would put it, "allow it," and appreciate it simply for what it is. Thanks for sharing.
Have you had a chance to experience the Van Gogh immersive experience? It brought me such a depth of appreciation for this life story and the experience itself was deeply moving.
This one spoke to me......It seems to me more and more that the most practical and direct way to make progress with the work is not to look too far away and to stay down to earth.
Thank you for sharing this Matthew. It was just what I needed to read today.
Appreciating beauty and finding things beautiful — and allowing oneself to love nature such that even more beauty can be illuminated — are so important, and ever more difficult when various forces work to leech away our precious attention. In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell draws from Martin Buber's theory of the It-Thou dichotomy of how we (humans) address existence. Using the example of a tree, an "I-it" relation objectifies the tree, fitting it into heuristics and conceiving of it only in terms bound by our lived experience. An "I-Thou" encounter allows us to acknowledge the "absolute equality" of the other, and thus gives space to fully attend to the tree — or, as Dass would put it, "allow it," and appreciate it simply for what it is. Thanks for sharing.
Bravo Matthew,
Thank you generously sharing your writing.
With gratitude,
🙏
Have you had a chance to experience the Van Gogh immersive experience? It brought me such a depth of appreciation for this life story and the experience itself was deeply moving.
This one spoke to me......It seems to me more and more that the most practical and direct way to make progress with the work is not to look too far away and to stay down to earth.