I went on a walk with Steve today. We do this a lot. I think my work with Steve is much more labor-intensive that Charlie's has been with me. He'd take 30 seconds to tell me to do something, and then I'd go and spend hours and hours doing it....Though, come to think of it, the growing ears exercise took as much of his time as mine, and the whole adventure where he was unlabeling trees as fast as I could label them must have been pretty time-consuming on his part, too. So maybe what I'm doing isn't more labor-intensive. But it certainly seems more social.
It's not just that Steve is less motivated, it's that I'm less experienced. If I'm not there when he reacts to something, I won't know how he reacts. And, also, maybe I'm more social. I like taking walks and talking to people. I won't be able to do this much one-on-one when I'm a master, though. Not with dozens of students at once.
Wait, did I just say that? "When" I'm a master?
Anyway, so Steve asked me what the point of learning all this natural history stuff is. This from a man who isn't learning a tenth of what I had do. Mostly we're just working on experiencing and noticing things.
"What do you think the point is?" I asked.
"Oh, no, don't pull that mystical stuff with me, your belt is the same color mine is." We both wear white belts with brown uniforms, rather than brown belts like the masters do. "I'm not some yearling."
"Too bad for you, yearlings have it made," I replied. "Well, what's the point of learning all that stuff you know, history and politics and everything?"
"It helps me be a better person."
"How?" I asked.
"Do you think we shouldn't learn history?"
"I said nothing about should or shouldn't. I want to know how it works."
He had to think for a bit about that. Finally:
"Knowing the historical context of events helps me avoid hurting others so much. And it makes me feel like what I'm doing matters."
"Well," I said, "same with ecological context."
He had to think about that one, too.
Honestly, folks, I'm making this stuff up as I go along, but I seem to hit upon the right thing to say, at least sometimes.
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