seasons

Seasons

June 3, 1999, By: Timothy W. Shire

individuals have little grasp of things beyond their temporal awareness
As I was playing with the little animated gift scene that portrays the seasons I realised that our limitations as beings is predetermined by the span of our lives. Just as governments plan only long enough to win the next election we seem as individuals to have little grasp of things that are beyond our temporal awareness. Scientists grapple with this problem and make outstanding efforts in trying to understand the developments of various phenomena, but for the most part, their speculations can be grossly inaccurate because they are based on specific time based data.

we have to rely upon our personal experience
As for human behaviour and the events that shape the lives of each of us, or our society for that matter, we have to rely upon our personal experience and what we can gather from our parents and grandparents. I was fortunate enough to have spend a lot of time as a young child with my great grandfather and those encounters helped me expand my own view of things, but only in a minimal way. If you are to grasp the essentials and what is really important, you have to do that internally by yourself.

mysteries are just created by the lack of perspective
As I grow older and am now over half a century, I realise that so many puzzles are really not that complex and with the view of time, many mysteries are just created by the lack of perspective. Each year as it passes with its seasons is such an unfolding event and a series of seasons become a perceivable pattern only after a great many years. My good friend Phillip is nearing his 80s and his understanding of seasonal and climatic conditions is awesome when compared with mine.

longer life span is creating a new awareness
No doubt there is a reason why we live only as long as we do, but the expansion of life span in my own time of life is truly remarkable and so then is our ability now to grasp some of the simple long term problems of people, and this planet on which we live. A scientist in Regina went to court this morning because he has a long term study in progress into the nature of vegetation on the prairies and he has already made a considerable break-through in discovering the natural grasses of the prairies give off much less carbon dioxide then European grasses. His study is a mere seven years long and who knows what amazing things he will discover if he can only keep the plot he is using right now and not have it turned into a parking lot.

the limitation of my short life
The forests are another amazing example, we have jokingly commented about not being able to see them for the trees, but they are a complex inter-related living system and we already have guessed at the whole concept of “succession” as the forest goes through its natural phases. I was exploring this problem as well as you might see, in this little animation, but my limitation is time, not the time to create the drawing, but the limitation of my short life.

our collective need to know, is demanding we solve more of the problems that exist.
The creation of the written word has allowed us to pass on to future generations our awareness of things and now with electronic media, we can expand our recording of our experiences to include images and sounds, as you see on this web site. But neither written word or pictures, do anything more then support the theories of those who will contemplate things in the future. If we want to get to the bottom of things, we need to futher expand our life span. Personally, I think that we as a species live quite long enough, but my curiousity and our collective need to know, is demanding we solve more of the problems that exist.

our limitation is related not to the complexity of an event but to the number of repetitions
Simple studies and tests will show that our memory, though amazingly capable, seems only to be able to handle a few things at once and if these things interact, there is a limitation as to what we can compute. Five instruments playing in a combo will tax most of us to the limit of our concentration ability and a symphony is overwhelming as we only can follow the melody or mood of the piece. Look at this simple little animation and notice that three events can be tracked easily and since the pattern is repetitive we can assemble what is going on. Compare that to the animation of the passing season or forest succession and you see immediately that our limitation is related not to the complexity of an event but to the number of repetitions we have to sort out what is going on.

the smartest people, who understand things the very best, are no longer in the work force
Since I am not a scientist attempting to find extended life, all I can do is deal with the here and now and I am suggesting to you that the resources we need to solve some of the problems that exist may be with the senior citizens of our society. The process of retirement and aging is inordinately wasteful and we as a society had better take a much longer look at what is happening. There is a good chance that the smartest people, who understand things the very best, are those people who are no longer in the work force and we are no longer using what they know and understand.

Seasons
*June 3, 1999, By: Timothy W. Shire*

individuals have little grasp of things beyond their temporal awareness	As I was playing with the little animated gift scene that portrays the seasons I realised that our limitations as beings is predetermined by the span of our lives. Just as governments plan only long enough to win the next election we seem as individuals to have little grasp of things that are beyond our temporal awareness. Scientists grapple with this problem and make outstanding efforts in trying to understand the developments of various phenomena, but for the most part, their speculations can be grossly inaccurate because they are based on specific time based data.

we have to rely upon our personal experience	As for human behaviour and the events that shape the lives of each of us, or our society for that matter, we have to rely upon our personal experience and what we can gather from our parents and grandparents. I was fortunate enough to have spend a lot of time as a young child with my great grandfather and those encounters helped me expand my own view of things, but only in a minimal way. If you are to grasp the essentials and what is really important, you have to do that internally by yourself.

mysteries are just created by the lack of perspective	As I grow older and am now over half a century, I realise that so many puzzles are really not that complex and with the view of time, many mysteries are just created by the lack of perspective. Each year as it passes with its seasons is such an unfolding event and a series of seasons become a perceivable pattern only after a great many years. My good friend Phillip is nearing his 80s and his understanding of seasonal and climatic conditions is awesome when compared with mine.

longer life span is creating a new awareness	No doubt there is a reason why we live only as long as we do, but the expansion of life span in my own time of life is truly remarkable and so then is our ability now to grasp some of the simple long term problems of people, and this planet on which we live. A scientist in Regina went to court this morning because he has a long term study in progress into the nature of vegetation on the prairies and he has already made a considerable break-through in discovering the natural grasses of the prairies give off much less carbon dioxide then European grasses. His study is a mere seven years long and who knows what amazing things he will discover if he can only keep the plot he is using right now and not have it turned into a parking lot.

the limitation of my short life	The forests are another amazing example, we have jokingly commented about not being able to see them for the trees, but they are a complex inter-related living system and we already have guessed at the whole concept of “succession” as the forest goes through its natural phases. I was exploring this problem as well as you might see, in this little animation, but my limitation is time, not the time to create the drawing, but the limitation of my short life.

our collective need to know, is demanding we solve more of the problems that exist.	The creation of the written word has allowed us to pass on to future generations our awareness of things and now with electronic media, we can expand our recording of our experiences to include images and sounds, as you see on this web site. But neither written word or pictures, do anything more then support the theories of those who will contemplate things in the future. If we want to get to the bottom of things, we need to futher expand our life span. Personally, I think that we as a species live quite long enough, but my curiousity and our collective need to know, is demanding we solve more of the problems that exist.

our limitation is related not to the complexity of an event but to the number of repetitions	Simple studies and tests will show that our memory, though amazingly capable, seems only to be able to handle a few things at once and if these things interact, there is a limitation as to what we can compute. Five instruments playing in a combo will tax most of us to the limit of our concentration ability and a symphony is overwhelming as we only can follow the melody or mood of the piece. Look at this simple little animation and notice that three events can be tracked easily and since the pattern is repetitive we can assemble what is going on. Compare that to the animation of the passing season or forest succession and you see immediately that our limitation is related not to the complexity of an event but to the number of repetitions we have to sort out what is going on.

the smartest people, who understand things the very best, are no longer in the work force	Since I am not a scientist attempting to find extended life, all I can do is deal with the here and now and I am suggesting to you that the resources we need to solve some of the problems that exist may be with the senior citizens of our society. The process of retirement and aging is inordinately wasteful and we as a society had better take a much longer look at what is happening. There is a good chance that the smartest people, who understand things the very best, are those people who are no longer in the work force and we are no longer using what they know and understand.