Copernicus, Where Art Thou?

Being a national parks fan I tuned to PBS this evening to watch the first episode of Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea. The preamble featured beautiful images from various national parks accompanied by a narrator explaining that the parks contain the "highest peak in the continent", the "oldest living thing", "the tallest tree", "the highest free waterfall in the continent", etc.

Interestingly enough the marshlands around the bay area have not been designated as a national park. Nor did that meadow in Massachusetts where I was eaten alive by mosquitoes, that thorny field nearby, or that boring hill by which we drove in Montana.

Indeed, even the national parks are not about preserving the environment. They are about preserving some environments --- those which awe mankind.

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It Takes Two To Tango

This morning JJ, one of the developers in my group, walked into my office weary eyed: he had been woken up by his toddler son Jonathan in the wee hours of the morning. It turned out that the binkie had fallen out of the crib. When JJ entered Jonathan's room he saw the toddler pretending to stretch in an attempt to reach the pacifier. "I decided to teach him how to fish," said JJ, "Quite literally; I held the binkie in the palm of my hand way down until he extended his arm and grabbed it. Next time he'll pick it up on his own."

This reminds me of one of Ephraim Kishon's stories, the one about his puppy. Despite all of Kishon's efforts the puppy kept wetting the carpet. Desperate, Kishon turned to the vet for advice. "Easy," said the vet, "dogs can be trained. Each time this happens you need to grab the puppy, shove its nose into the puddle and then kick it out through the window." And sure enough, this did the trick: within just a couple of days the puppy was trained. It would pee on the carpet, shove its own nose into the puddle and then proceed to jump out of the window.

We all teach what we want to teach and learn what we choose to learn.

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