Thursday

From the Gardening Journals

Gardener extraordinaire, Carol Deppe, channels Nassim Taleb and Albert Jay Nock in this passage about gardening:

As part of our bias toward seeing stories, we tend to interpret sequences of events in terms of causation. We see cause where there is only correlation. I think we also have a hardwired bias toward intervention. So we usually try to solve problems by doing something, even where doing nothing might be the best option. We often don't give a problem any chance to resolve by itself without our intervention (and added work). Then when we have done something, we interpret any changes in the situation as being caused by our action. We may then add that action to our list of gardening chores, and do it from then on without ever testing whether it is useful, let alone necessary. Many traditional gardening tasks are unnecessary interventions that are both laborious and counterproductive.

It's no coincidence this passage comes from her The Tao of Vegetable Gardening. As I get older, I see the Tao more and more: in my life, in connections I make, in writers I've enjoyed. And now in gardening. Everywhere I look, I seem to make a connection to the Tao.

Maybe (hopefully?) because I'm getting closer and closer to meeting the Tao.