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[ 4 minute read ]
Understanding through sensuality
Understand not just learn
Every now and then I put my books away, back in my library (bookcases in the living room), but because my library is so far away from my office (also in my living room) I find that I select a book, carry it to my office, and tend not to immediately return it to my library (within arms reach of my desk). If I was married or lived with someone I suspect I might be more inclined to tidiness and even notice some of the biscuit crumbs that like to sneak up to the books on the floor that I haven't moved for a month or so. Oh! I sweep but I don't lift the books.
I suppose just like deliberately paying attention to someone's garden we might try to fathom how their mind works, we might also, by looking at the books someone has recently read or, in my case fail to return to the bookcases, glean some further understanding of what either entertains or distracts someone. Once, in a job interview I was asked, 'What distracts you?' The question was code for how many times a day do you look at your phone?
Some of the books on my floor, which though they are at the lowest elevation they might be at, they are in the most favoured place. Far from them being considered lowly and not important enough to be in a protected environment, they are the most interesting books to me, at this time.
Of course, there is the Roget's Thesaurus, The Concise Oxford Dictionary and Simply Psychology. There is also the Oxford Latin Dictionary; The Undercover Economist; Zen and the Brain; Encyclopedia of Superstitions; and The Fiction Writer's Handbook. The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman is in the bathroom because it has very short chapters.
A new arrival to the floor is an AS and A2 revision book on Religious Studies.
I have three lap tops and one peripheral monitor and my garden is scrappy but at present has some Giant Winter leeks growing in it. There are about twenty growing cuttings from a Box shrub, and about twenty to thirty garlic plants struggling, as well as, when I put them outside each day, three heritage tomato plants and a single Bell Pepper plant from last season that I somehow managed to overwinter in my bedroom.
What can we deduce from this?
I like words; a lot! I am not fascinated but interested by how plants grow and like to lazily experiment with them; and computing is important to me. Actually, the last is a bit misleading in that the reason I have three laptops is because I separate tasks between the three in order that there is no obvious connectivity between all my digital actions. One of them never goes online.
The A3 and A4 size pieces of paper Blu-tacked to my walls with pithy paragraphs taken from books and online are the give-away. I am focused on understanding, which is a step beyond learning. They remain on my walls because I like to try to apply templates across different disciplines.
Yesterday, I attended a lecture on Reflective Commentaries (following some creative writing). I really wanted to contribute by telling the room that a complex system always starts with a simple system, and that a complex system cannot be created without there first being a simple system. That is the theory given by John Gall, a Systems Theorist. I had this in mind when I asked the question, 'Do you think it is a good idea to write a skeleton piece and then embroider literary devices onto it?' and later stated, 'I shall finish the story, write the reflection, and then revisit the story to make changes.'
People who highlight passages in text books and dog-ear the pages are doing the same as me with my 'Posters of Wisdom' on my walls, the latter of the two, dog-earin, is by far the furthest I would deface any book. Even if we have no bookmarks we do have cereal boxes or something to cut up into strips. The good thing about cereal boxes and strips of paper is that we can write the annotations on them that we would otherwise have written on the pages. The best thing about this is that we can remove the annotations on the strips of paper and read the text again unfettered by our prior thoughts and circumscribed beliefs. That, for me, is more about understanding than learning.
My neighbour was upset when I told him I have not read his wife's published cookery book, which they gave me a few years ago. I think he was upset because he felt I have a duty to read it because his wife put so much effort into recording her recipes and actions and then went through the publishing process. I have no duty to fulfill. Certainly, as someone with a PhD in Electronic Engineering, he was puzzled when I told him I don't follow recipes; I experiment. I may not be a good cook, but, effectively, the recipe book is as much use to me as a guidebook on Ancient Athens to someone of the period who lives in Athens, or something thereabouts in value. I like to learn and understand flavours, and find new combinations; you know, Basil goes with Tomatoes and you can't put lemon juice on mushrooms but you can put it in scrambled eggs.
I suppose I am a sensualist.