Traditional Iconoclast

Disorientation Express: Redux

Posted on 12 October 2024 by Isabel Gibson

Do you remember my recent visual disorientation: not being sure whether I was moving? Here’s an example of a similar phenomenon. This time, though, I think it’s deliberate.

Moving ramp.

Posted in Another Thing | Tagged Buildings, Miscellany | 8 Comments

Happy Warriors All

Posted on 12 October 2024 by Isabel Gibson

What is life?

A few centuries ago when I was in Grade 11, my biology teacher wrote that question on the board at the start of the year. We learned a few concepts that year and memorized a bunch of definitions, but we didn’t answer that question, even just in a strict biological context.

What is life?

A week or so ago, Jim Taylor wrote a post about life that evoked some of my high-school confusion. Is an individual ant or termite or bee alive, given that the characteristics we generally associate with life–including the ability to reproduce–are vested in the collective?

A bee landed on my arm the other day. She didn’t sting. I assume she was a “she,” because the worker bees who gather nectar that the bees inside the hive turn into honey to sustain the queen and her children are always female.

This particular bee wasn’t aggressive. Or defensive. She just clung to my skin and looked around.

We had a pleasant little chat before she flew off.

I think of her as an individual. A lone bee, foraging on behalf of the hive, able to choose for herself which flowers – or persons —she would visit today. But those who study bees – called Melittologists or Apiarists or Apiologists – say I’m thinking incorrectly. The living organism is not the individual bee but the hive as a whole. (See pdf below for the entire post.)

It got me thinking.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Feeling Clearly, Thinking Broadly | Tagged Community, Trees | 8 Comments

Enduringly

Posted on 11 October 2024 by Isabel Gibson

Time: A year later than then.

Place: The same west-end parking lot as then.

Result: More or less the same as then: a fine reflection in the car’s side mirror, and a chain-link fence still trending to horizontal.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Flora | Tagged Aging, Flowers | 8 Comments

Ooh, Brr

Posted on 01 October 2024 by Isabel Gibson

It seems early to be fussing about the cold, even here in the Great White North. In Ontari-ari-ari-o, our leaves are just starting to turn: a mix of the should-be-usual fantabulous fall colours and a depressing gray-brown.

Ooh, Brr

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Wired | Tagged Aging, Conversations, Technology | 12 Comments

What the Eye Doesn’t See

Posted on 01 October 2024 by Isabel Gibson

A while back we talked about how the eye completely ignores things that the camera insists upon showing, even highlighting. As a result, it’s tricky to frame a photo so that it shows more or less what my eye first noticed and appreciated, and nothing else.

Do I include context?

Do I go in close, excluding anything that might distract while trying to hang onto the essentials?

Do I experiment, moving the main subject into the background?

Why not all three? Pixels aren’t pricey, and flowers like this at the end of September are priceless.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Fauna, Photos of Flora | Tagged Flowers, Insects | 8 Comments

Life is not . . .

Posted on 27 September 2024 by Isabel Gibson

. . . a photo-op.

Well, for me at least, it’s often an op; it’s not always a photo.

Such was the case with the partial lunar eclipse about 10 days ago, which was barely a viewing op. Remarkably for Ottawa during any celestial event, the skies were actually clear. The moon? Clear. The eclipse? Less clear.

With decent binoculars and at full partial eclipse (if you see what I mean) and with a bit of squinting, there was . . . a dark smudge atop said moon. Neither of my cameras–nay, neither phone camera on the Night setting nor non-phone camera fitted with a long lens and an extended shutter time–I say again, neither camera was any use to me in capturing said smudge. Neither was any good at even capturing the moon. As you see. I maybe said a few things.

But it was a lovely evening on the front porch, as well as a reminder that many things in life require something beyond in-the-moment participation. In this respect, photographing the heavens is just like baseball: You don’t get in shape for it by playing it.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged Skies | 8 Comments

Just Like That

Posted on 27 September 2024 by Isabel Gibson

The rise or fall happens day by day, not all at once,
and normal interventions rarely make a difference.
Instead,
it’s the apparently irrational overinvestment in the moment
that can change the dynamic going forward.

Seth Godin is talking about the downward spiral of small towns–lose some services, lose some people, lose some tax base, lose more services, lose more people, lose more tax base–and the upward spiral of brand popularity where the number of hipsters using and flaunting a given brand builds on–what’s this?–oh yeah, the number of hipsters using and flaunting a given brand.

But wait, there’s more. He’s talking about life, isn’t he?

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Day-to-Day Encounters, Thinking Broadly | Tagged Attitudes, Community, Culture | 8 Comments

The Disorientation Express

Posted on 19 September 2024 by Isabel Gibson

I feel the Earth move
under my feet

Actually, the problem is that I don’t feel the Earth move under my feet (or under my butt, since I’m sitting down), but — through the porthole-sized window on the jet — I do see it moving. The bridge edges toward a good-enough alignment with the door in the airplane’s fuselage — or maybe we’re edging toward the bridge, I can’t tell — and I have a moment of complete disorientation.