I have a half-century of experience with nature. I grew up on a farm, hunted/fished, have grown 1,000 different species of plants at my home, have given invited talks at local Master Gardener’s meetings and have had 500 visitors through my garden on a charity garden walk. I am also the current chair of the landscaping committee of our UU ‘church’ that has five acres of urban property to maintain, one acre of which that is wild.
When some of the members of our church were troubled by a woodchuck, I was asked to get rid of it. This is easy on a farm, throw a smoker down its hole and then shoot it when it comes out. In the city that is a very different matter, shooting is not permitted in the city and UU’s are noted for tolerance and peace. A live trap was suggested. I dismissed the idea under the assumption there is little motivation for an animal to climb into a live trap to get food when they already have an acre to feed on. One of the older ladies on our committee begged to differ; she had already caught a woodchuck on her own property in the summer using lettuce and carrots as bait. I never figured I knew everything and am constantly reminded/humbled by what people know that I don’t.
The same thing happens in web handling. Nearly every plant visit I learn something new from most of the team that I am working with. The most common learning is that my knowledge/experience is both incomplete and, in some cases, incorrect. Whether it is from operators or little old ladies, I am constantly humbled and, not on a few occasions, humiliated. As the 20th century Japanese Zen master Shunryu Suzuki put it, "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few."


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