SUNDAY NIGHT SLIDES
SUNDAY NIGHT SLIDES
"Ego amo te" Translated from latin, simply means: I love you.
Much like how we hold perspectives that form judgements of the external world around us; it's ego – our self image – that acts as the internal courtroom judge mediating between personal primal desires (like instincts of survival and reproduction) and expected behaviours that guide our public identity within society.
Ego, in that sense, appears to be a positive part of personality. But alas, it's the only courtroom judge that hasn't got a grand jury holding it accountable, and with only self in mind, is the sole proponent of law and order too.
Ego can then be likened to a justice system of values and principles of conduct that we believe to be astutely accurate when making decisions, judging our own behaviour to be right and wrong, and justifying it with defence.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself. And you are the easiest person to fool." – Richard Feynman, Physicist.
Given the popularist culture that has familiarised the façade: correlating self-promotion with success. Egotism – an inflated opinion of one's own worth – has certainly been magnified. Not only that, but it's the deep attachment to an identity group, rather than shared principles, that's most concerning.
Identity is a powerful force.
It feeds ego with purpose and a tangible aspect of self through the way we look, things we buy, actions we take and messages we promote (or don't). It provides us with affiliation and belonging to others we admire and gives us a shared sense of injustice when people from our identified groups experience maltreatment.
With the systemic and damaging inequalities faced by many groups of people, it’s unsurprising that we want to protect our identity, stand up for our rights and ensure that future generations don't suffer (survival and reproduction instincts in practice). Whilst there's currently unavoidable social disconnection, this thrusts us into the throes of survival mode which, in turn, heightens our inward focus on self.
A shared principles solution?
Communities that connect people through shared principles that are greater than themselves or their identities can permeate through social groups.
This dissolves the defence of ego that's concerned with external image, that's often driven by insecurities, by following guiding principles that offer a soulful sense of social cohesion.
Belief in better as one.
An example of a community that quite literally lives and breathes its collective importance outside of self, is that of the humble forest.
Hidden beneath the soil in the forest's underbelly is a labyrinth of fungal connections between tree roots that scientists have named the mycorrhizal network (pronounced mike-or-rise-all) or more amusingly named the wood-wide web, lol.
As Peter Wohlleben, author of Sunday Times Bestseller: The Hidden Life of Trees, explains...
"Wise old mother trees feed their saplings with liquid sugar and warn the neighbours when danger approaches. Reckless youngsters take foolhardy risks with leaf-shedding, light-chasing and excessive drinking, and usually pay with their lives. Crown princes wait for the old monarchs to fall, so they can take their place in the full glory of sunlight. It’s all happening in the ultra-slow motion that is tree time."
Focused on the long game.
Recounting a memory from his time spent immersed in woodland as a professional forester, Peter continues, with a particular canopy of beech trees in mind:
"Those two are old friends and appear careful not to encroach into each other's space. They are very considerate in sharing the sunlight and their root systems are closely connected. In cases like this, when one dies, the other usually dies soon afterward, because they are dependent on each other."
There's now a substantial body of scientific evidence that encourages Peter's somewhat idealised, anthropomorphic discovery.
Evidence shows that trees of the same species are primarily communal but will often form alliances with trees of other species for the future of their shared habitat. Trees have evolved to live as a cooperative, interdependent species that are maintained by communication with collective intelligence.
Deforestation, then, being a real-life metaphor for the disconnect between neighbours that, whilst pruning plants for the garden show, are ignoring the fact that all the fucking houses are burning down.
Charlie
FEATURED SLIDE
WORTH WATCHING
In true Patagonia style, a beautifully shot feature, that captures the serenity and magic of forests and somehow manage to blend spirituality with science and sport. It follows a group of skiers, snowboarders, scientists and healers to the birch forests of Japan, red cedars of British Columbia and bristlecones of Nevada as they explore an ancient story written in rings.
FINAL THOUGHTS 💭
In memory of Josh Taylor ❤️