Maria Popova (See: The Marginalian) is on my short-list of people and groups that provide an “Island of Coherence in a Sea of Chaos” in these strange and challenging times.
Below is the lead-up to her amazing piece from today on Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez. And also, my Polarity Map (Quest for Certainty And Openness to Mystery), created based on the post. It is, perhaps, a feeble attempt to simplify the incredible depth and breadth of her amazing reflections on Thinking/Seeing Patterns.
Maybe you will find it useful? Time will tell.
“The hardest state for a human being to sustain is that of open-endedness. We may know that uncertainty is the crucible of creativity, we may know that uncertainty is the key to democracy and good science, and yet in our longing for certainty we keep propping ourselves up from the elemental wobbliness of life on the crutch of opinion. Few things are more seductive to us than a ready opinion, and we brandish few things more flagrantly as we move through the world, slicing through its fundamental uncertainty with our insecure certitudes. The trouble with opinion is that it instantly islands us in the stream of life, cutting off its subject — and us along with it — from the interconnected totality of deep truth.”
Now the hard part … putting Polarity Map wisdom into practice in real-world territory.
Wish me luck.
I wish you luck.
(Side note: If you haven’t seen Maria’s Almanac of Birds 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days – Do SEE!)
