Can’t See the Forest Through the Trees.

I can't see the forest through the trees; communication trees, that is. In a twist to this saying one might say, I can't see the meaning through the words. 

This post, I want to use the analogy of the life cycle of a tree to illuminate a common understanding of how we communicate in and through time and space. This blog seems to be telling a cumulative story, in its best form. The big idea this post wants to share is that we grow forests of communication trees.

Above is the “Childhood - Macrostate” chart (See Post 11/20/11). The chart doesn’t show the developmental progression of communication capacity or capability.

From the seed comes stem and root. Reaching down into the earth and up into the sky. 

The magic begins when the seed explodes into being a tree. For the sake of not starting an argument, lets say that in humans, this point is birth.

Non-conscious self is in full record mode from well before birth. Other than fulfilling basic needs, non-conscious self doesn’t playback much until the post birth gestation is fulfilled out about 6 to 9 months of age. 

Remember last post? Mirror neurons? Little people have mirror neurons as well; however, they have nothing to associate with what they are sensing. This is true of all of the other sensory pathways. Those we are aware of and those of which we well may not be conscious. We learn to see and hear and touch.

Words are symbols of experience and not the experience itself. 

First we learn to witness. Then we learn to experience. Then we learn to make symbols representing our experience. Then we learn to form our symbols into more and more complex meaning. After a little practice, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” was born.

Each idea, each word is like a seedling tree. Every time a word or idea is reinforced by experience, it grows. It expands in virtual mass growing an expanding network of branches and then leaves.

An inner city child’s concept of a tree would be very different from John Muir’s idea of trees as an old man.

A healthy forest of communication trees in the fertile soil of healthy neurons will grow tall, full and interlock to create higher and higher levels of communication capacity.

If the environment that nurtures the tree is parched and toxic, the tree will not grow to its potential. The tree living in that environment will not have the capacity, much less the capability to manifest, remember and understand complex meaning. If the environment of a healthy tree becomes biocidic, the healthy tree will fall ill and die. 

The skeletal remains of these communication trees have lost their capacity to create a word, much less higher meaning. Meth heads must have communication forests that resemble the above gathering of trees.

How have you cultivated the communication forest in your mind? How have you maintained the soil of your being? What seeds have been planted in the soil of your neurons?

The neurology is the hardware. The mind is the software. The rest of the body is your peripheral array. All tools. All toys.


Have fun and play safe!