leaving things alone

the choice is not irrelevant

AMB James Smith will discuss Saudi Arabia a week from tomorrow on 19 July at 5 pm Eastern. Make sure it’s on your calendar as this webinar will help clarify so much about our Middle East problems and possibilities.

We are spending a couple of days in Manhattan for a revival of Camelot. We spent the day doing what we do in New York: reminding ourselves of how beautiful great art can be by visiting Monet, Renoir, Cassatt, and the other Impressionists in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, then walking across Central Park

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I was reminded how our assumptions can be so wrong as I walked. It’s seductive to underappreciate how many species thrive in the heat, the pollution, the peopled, and density of this urban refuge in the amazing inner city.

This black and white spotted spider captivated me for about 5 minutes. I wasn’t getting great shots but I got a couple.

I am not a spider fan but the entire transit across this branch reminded me that we are here to share this community and land with others. If he is not hurting me or anyone else of the human variety (who knows what happens when no one is paying attention?), then why worry about it? He is just moving along a small branch.

Human behaviour, especially Americans, believe instead that our role is to fix things. Is it? Why or why not?

Perhaps we could do more observing and a little less fixing?

Great suggestion but how do we draw the line? Where do we genuinely believe we can merely allow things to flourish instead of redirecting their paths as I might have redirected the spider? Tough question, especially for such a divided land of 330 million opinionated people.

But watching the spider did raise the question for me. He may be the world’s most dangerous spider; I know nothing about spiders. But, I know that he is in the middle of a great eco-system in Central Park in the state of New York in North America on planet earth. I have to assume he must do something good.

Fixing problems is a huge, never ending state of events. Could be lots to fix or could be something so inconsequential but figuring that out takes some risk assessment, cost benefit analysis, and weighing of relative motivation. All of which were beyond me this afternoon as he fascinated me for 5 minutes.

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We also saw the superb New York Historical Society and dined at Blossom, that vegan masterpiece enticing us year after year after year.

We visit New York with a mission in mind but the city’s surprises remind me of how its diversity opens so much thought about our country and our world. It’s all a series of trade offs but actions really do create consequences. FIN

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