Learning about 'spareness' from horses LO23256

AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Thu, 18 Nov 1999 09:00:03 +0200

Replying to LO23192 --

Dear Organlearners,

Andrew Campona < ACampnona@aol.com >

>May I open with Mary Follett's inspirational advice with this
>respect to integrating the new person to the existing -but
>maybe shifting organisation of persons, whatever the 'forms'
>each take;-)
>
>"The teacher is not one who has lived and the student one
>who is going to live, but that both are living now, in the present,
>that it should be fresh life meeting fresh life."

Greetings Andrew,

Thank you for a beautifully metaphoric contribution. You have anticipated
and synchronised perfectly the "dassein"/"mitsein" issue.

You write that the trainer told you the following and how he replied to
your questioning:

>"Well, if a horse is content he will often stand with one front
>leg sort of crooked, and he will hang his head down, sort of
>looking at the ground close."
>"That makes me think he would look depressed."
>"Sure, but that is how it is with a horse, for a horse."

It made me think how I will tell someone that a succulent plant is
"content". Well, one has to look for a slight covering of dust even on the
newest growth of the plant with the plant still not appearing shrunken.

>For me a sad sight is a horse alone in a field; I will always stop
>and ask him how things are.

The same here for me.

A few species of succulent plants can become very old -- thousands of
years. Thus they are subjected to changes which become noticeable only
after thousands of years. These changes are usually in the geology and
climate. Although the plaants manage to survive despite these changes
because they have immense reserves, their young cannot do so. Thus the
number of plants in younger age groups of that species become gradually
less.

Sometimes no youngsters (up to an age of 100 years) can be found. This
ought to alarm the observant mind. Sometimes only a few oldsters (none
younger than a thousand years) can still be found. This is a sad sight
for the observant mind whenever self-polination of specimens are not
possible. These oldsters are the memories of a species which is in effect
extinct. Why? The "dassein" still exists, but the "mitsein" is already
extinct. Because self-pollination is not possible, the "dassein" cannot
be continued.

Can you see the correspondence with some organsations?

Best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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