There is in all things a pattern
that is part of our universe.
It has symmetry, elegance, and grace
–these qualities you find always
in that which the true artist captures.

You can find it
in the turning of the seasons,
in the way the sand trails along a ridge…
We try to capture these patterns
in our lives and in our society,
seeking the rhythms, the dances,
the forms that comfort.

Yet it is possible to find peril
in the finding of ultimate perfection.
It is clear that the ultimate pattern
contains its own fixity.
In such patterns all things move
toward death.

Excerpt Dune, The Sayings of Muad‘Dib,
By Frank Herbert

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The Socrates Cafe discussion group convened virtually by Zoom.  The proposed topic for discussion was the natural cycles observed in nature.  What lessons are to be learned from the change in the seasons, the cycles of giving birth among the species, the tides and the phases of the moon?

The topic is so expansive that I hardly knew where or how to begin, or where to end…  The lessons seem endless, lessons alien to our culturally conditioned manner of thinking.  I desire clear and distinct lessons.  The lessons taken from nature are substantial, of inestimable value.  But, are quite different by comparison to a formula such as E=MC².  Lessons received from observation/experience of the regularities of nature are not tools at my disposal.

I enjoy hanging out with artists.  I’d like to become an artist, an artist in my own way.  That is, one who is quietly observant.  One who mindfully receives with my senses, contact with the external world.  Teaching from nature comes in its own time, a lesson customized to the student’s time and place.  What must I do to gain admission to nature’s course of study?  Slow down.  Step away from the mad pace of our machine driven, algorithmicly programmed society.  Be still to clear the mind, set out on a leisurely walk, etc.

The photo is of a small blown glass vessel, a subdued mottled gray and yellow surface, with a brilliant yellow lip wrap.  Thomas Spake, the artist, need not have had anything from nature specifically in mind upon creation of the vessel.  Nevertheless the natural forms, the subtle shades of nature are present.  The diminutive vessel fits within two cupped hands, like a tiny finch…

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The quotation featured is one I have returned to many times over the years.  Frank Herbert captures in words the benefit and the peril inscribed within the regularities of nature.