Walking in the Forests

[Ivi]

Definitely people in general tend see things from a very narrow point of view (or in black-and-white terms), and of course from the "average" point of view. And of course if someone really has had only a very simple, average life, they might not feel the "need" to think of most issues around them that don't touch them personally.

 

[velociraptor]

The Explorer, McKinnon Flats to Johnson's Island, Bow River Float, 2024-09-15

Sometimes it is also nice to paddle through a forest on a river.

(That's my daughter ahead of me.)

 

[FayetheAspie]

The Explorer, McKinnon Flats to Johnson's Island, Bow River Float, 2024-09-15

Sometimes it is also nice to paddle through a forest on a river.

(That's my daughter ahead of me.)

Beautiful photo. Lots of bright blues and bright greens (two of my favorite colors along with bright aqua/teal which are hybrids of blue and green).

 

[Jonn]

Beautiful photo. Lots of bright blues and bright greens (two of my favorite colors along with bright aqua/teal which are hybrids of blue and green).

That is beautiful, but give me this any day of the week:

 

[Jonn]

Definitely people in general tend see things from a very narrow point of view (or in black-and-white terms), and of course from the "average" point of view. And of course if someone really has had only a very simple, average life, they might not feel the "need" to think of most issues around them that don't touch them personally.

IMO, most ppl walk through life "with eyes wide shut".

 

[Jonn]

Not quite a forest, but...
Dark moody rainy weather...
Heaven...<sigh>

 

[Jeff T]

I just noticed a rather idiotic planning flaw in most of our parks. It's a hot climate with lots of beautiful big old growth trees for shade, and lots of nice paths all over the place, and here and there there's a bench to sit on. But instead of being under nice shady trees every one of those benches is out in the full sun where no one can sit on them.

I think I'm going to point that out when I meet some of my government ministers next week.

Could this be a safety issue?
If the benches are underneath large eucalypts?
I have 30+large, 30-meter eucalyptus trees on my property, and they drop small and large limbs on a fairly constant basis. Many of them could have taken out a bench and the person sitting on it.

 

[Outdated]

Could this be a safety issue?

That's possibly their thinking but it's still quite idiotic, the benches are all made of an aluminium alloy and in summer they'll easily get hot enough to cause serious burns. Anyone that lives here knows better than to try and sit on them but they must catch a few tourists out.

Our parks and our trees are very carefully looked after by teams of arborists specifically because they're notorious for dropping branches, but not matter how careful we are accidents are inevitable. Just last year a young girl was killed by a falling branch here while sitting in the shade eating her lunch.

There's a pattern to when they drop branches though, and most locals are well aware of that, so tourists see signs warning people not to park under particular trees and they see locals ignoring the signs and parking there anyway without a care in the world and they wonder what the purpose of the sign is.

The trees will hang on to every branch and every leaf they've got through a drought period, even the dead bits. They retain the maximum amount of shade that they can. When they get the first decent rains after a long dry spell is when they drop branches, they deliberately drop lower branches so that they can put more energy and more water in to new growth at the top of the tree. There's no warning when branch is going to drop, no strange noises, no gradual process, they just drop.

 

[Ivi]

IMO, most ppl walk through life "with eyes wide shut".

Very much so! As a Red Cross worker who's always focused to advocate for the quite unpopular issues that I'm personally most familiar with, I would say most common people simply don't care about the unpopular issues. Whatever issues happen to be trendy always get the most attention naturally. "C'est la vie!"

 

[Jonn]

Very much so! As a Red Cross worker who's always focused to advocate for the quite unpopular issues that I'm personally most familiar with, I would say most common people simply don't care about the unpopular issues. Whatever issues happen to be trendy always get the most attention naturally. "C'est la vie!"

Spoiler: offtopic

Agreed.

Most ppl have a herd mentality, and prefer to adopt a narrative, imo, rather than do the hard yakka/work of examining things in details for themselves.
Sheeple are sheeple. <shrug>

Also, with embracing an off the shelf ideology comes a sense of belonging, a sense of comradery that caters for groupthink mutual preening...
An oxytocin fest, in other words.
Collectivism is something I have never embraced, and I personally see it as anti-autistic and anti-intellectual.

BTW:
There are some dark esoteric topics that ppl simply dismiss, partly due to social brainwashing/gaslighting by the authorities, and partly because it threatens their personal understanding/meaning of life.

Most ppl aren't thinkers, they are feelers, and if a concept makes them feel uncomfortable, they tend to reject it without further consideration.

Most ppl seem to embrace confirmation bias, making their life less challenging intellectually and emotionally.
Cognitive dissonance is not a comfortable feeling.
It takes psychological and emotional strength to walk through the swamp of confusion/delusion to get to the "Mountain Peak of Enlightenment".

The Oracle of Truth has spoken.

 

[Ivi]

Spoiler: offtopic

Agreed.

Most ppl have a herd mentality, and prefer to adopt a narrative, imo, rather than do the hard yakka/work of examining things in details for themselves.
Sheeple are sheeple. <shrug>

Also, with embracing an off the shelf ideology comes a sense of belonging, a sense of comradery that caters for groupthink mutual preening...
An oxytocin fest, in other words.
Collectivism is something I have never embraced, and I personally see it as anti-autistic and anti-intellectual.

BTW:
There are some dark esoteric topics that ppl simply dismiss, partly due to social brainwashing/gaslighting by the authorities, and partly because it threatens their personal understanding/meaning of life.

Most ppl aren't thinkers, they are feelers, and if a concept makes them feel uncomfortable, they tend to reject it without further consideration.

Most ppl seem to embrace confirmation bias, making their life less challenging intellectually and emotionally.
Cognitive dissonance is not a comfortable feeling.
It takes psychological and emotional strength to walk through the swamp of confusion/delusion to get to the "Mountain Peak of Enlightenment".

The Oracle of Truth has spoken.

Yes. I have emraced my own cognitive dissonances as a part of human experience so it's something I'm comfortable living with nowadays. I used to beat myself for that, but then I saw it as a part of humanity and embraced it with acceptance because I couldn't change myself further. I didn't want to change for others too. I have seen a lot of people having that cognitive dissonance of course in my volunteering and activism. My activism challenges their pleasures in life, which I try to approach with an understanding position, as my topics challenge their feelings and it's not a good feeling for them, which I feel sympathetic about. But as long as they know and accept their biases, and admit it that they have their own biases, then I see them as smart but human. I'm both a feeler and a thinker, so I chose as my volunteering work the topics that I feel most strongly about, as well as know most about personally. On the other hand, my IQ (it was measured in the hospital) is not as high as the common people and the high functioning ASD people have, so focusing on a few topics is easiest for my life, and leaves room for taking care of myself too so I won't burn out and stop fighting for my specific important causes too, because when the depression hits big, there is no more room to fight for my causes anymore either and nothing matters anymore. That's also my autistic trait of course, I can't focus on other than just a few topics that are my special interests. I have the habit of carrying the world on my shoulders, and have had to learn to stop it for self-care. The world is so full of issues that it's impossible to fight for all of them. That's why I understand why the common people also fight only for the trendy topics, it's easiest for those who know nothing about the unpopular issues, and get their activism from what happens to be trendy in the media. Of course they will also have a lot of people who "fight with them", which makes it also a human experience as a tribalist species.
But this is getting too off topic, and I need to take time of from the internets for self-care now, as my depression is getting worse nowadays.