tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8523387783776949956.post1418550293542702289..comments2023-07-11T04:56:18.300-07:00Comments on God and Gum Nuts: Seasons (of life and nature)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03059054907843482358noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8523387783776949956.post-27323806059588184832012-01-16T14:09:14.326-08:002012-01-16T14:09:14.326-08:00Hi Byron,
I'm sorry you had your long comment...Hi Byron,<br /><br />I'm sorry you had your long comment eaten. I've had that happen to me a few times and I know how annoying it is. <br /><br />Thank you for pointing out that a cherry tree's only purpose is not to provide fruit. We do tend to see nature from a human perspective - and I was guilty of it then. I think we all need to be constantly reminded that nature's purposes is not just to serve human needs.<br /><br />Thank you also for your thoughts about the disruption of the seasons. I feel like copying your last sentence here and adding to my collection of quotes! It's so true and expressed so well. I wonder also whether our disconnection from our seasons means that many of us fail to see those seasonal anomalies and realise just how disturbing it is.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03059054907843482358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8523387783776949956.post-58161557053356996642012-01-16T06:42:21.897-08:002012-01-16T06:42:21.897-08:00Ah, just had a long comment eaten. :-(
Let me try...Ah, just had a long comment eaten. :-(<br /><br />Let me try again (in brief). I really appreciated this post, especially now having experienced a midwinter Christmas or three and Easters where the flowers are bursting through the ground that was cold and dead for months.<br /><br />"And a cherry tree's purpose after all is to provide fruit not pretty flowers." As you go on to point out with seasons of life, it is important to not identify the purpose of life in a single season. The beauty of the cherry blossoms and the nectar they provide insects and the leaf mulch that autumn brings to the soil and the extra sun that bare branches allow in winter - all are good aspects of the cherry tree. Even the wood that the tree gives in its death has a place, whether as a chest in a home or a home (and meal) for small woodland creatures. Not all purposes are contained within human horizons.<br /><br />Finally, this reflection makes me ponder the ways in which the disruption of seasons has not been confined to the seasons of life. The UK has had just had twelve months of very unseasonable experiences - from the hottest November of record to flowers arriving three months early or birds not flying south for the winter (or setting up nests in December) and various other anomalies that escape my recall at the moment. Perhaps these two disruptions are not entirely disconnected either. In losing sight of our creatureliness and seeking an eternal summer, we have created a culture of endless consumption that is now disrupting the annual seasons in alarming ways.byron smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.com