Curvature Existence

The last records and last papers are being dispatched, the last loose ends tied, the shuffling of  i-should-keep-these items but i-don’t-remember-why are drowning the desk.  Not a lot of year-end business to complete.

 Reflections are big for such times of transition.  For this particular year, they are significant, at least for me, and since the universe has no meaning without my censored viewing ports. . .

 

Roads here curve, -- not just an occasional twist – all of them.  This may seem an obvious requirement of an island community, but, until living here, I rarely considered the impact of curvature.  

Those first weeks of arriving, the layout was disorienting.  The first clues occurred when I went out walking, trying to discern cardinal directions, and attempting to find my way home or to a previously visited landmark. How often did I take a turn, thinking to come closer to one destination, only to realize I had overshot my goal or completely circumvented it.

  

The curve does more than thrown off my sense of orientation.  Curves disrupt the western approach of cause / effect, of problem / solution, of goal / accomplishment.  In some ways, curves encompass many of the philosophical differences of island approaches to life -- much like the leaves and fronds interrupt the expanses.  Even the trees curve and bend and twist,

 

 

 

Some of the differences are obvious.  Lines begin; they end.  Curves return without marking either a beginning or an end.  How can one gauge accomplishment, success? Are such terms a manifestation of linear thought?

 

Some differences are more subtle but have incredible impact. Direct approaches are not well received here.  ‘Direct’ rarely acknowledges peripheral support and assistance.  ‘Direct’ often bulldozes passed bends, dips, chuck holes, and minor dwellings.  ‘Direct’ bolsters the linear, analytical, and evidential.   

Big pictures bloom in brilliant solitude with eye-catching lighting, unencumbered by basil shoots, suckers, mycotrophs, or the impact of inter- and intra-species competition and mutualism.  

Here, such isolated displays result from controlled depth-of-feild manipulation or artistic cropping, beautiful but artificial.

 

 Once my own disequilibrium subsided, both navigationally and psychologically, I became enamored by the lushness of this alternative model.   Curved and direct both function.  Both provide viable models of existence.   

As I prepare to leave this island, I appreciate the intricate patterns and am saddened by my cursory understanding of those that I have glimpsed.  There are so many mutual and competing relationships.  It is no surprise that these find viable resources in our human outlook.  Are we not a product of our environment?

I wonder what my future discoveries might be of another existence, given this alternative view. . .