There’s a poem by Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, that tells a little story about sitting in a hall listening to a lecture about the facts and figures and proofs about the stars- but he was disquieted. He left, went out and looked up in wonder at the stars. This is a poem that has always stuck with me- that we don’t want to get bogged down in the details of a thing, and lose the thing itself. But is he right? When I look at a flower, my appreciation is pretty superficial. When a botanist looks at a flower, with their expert knowledge, they can appreciate the flower on a much deeper level. They understand the various parts of the plant and how they all work together, and what role the plant has in the wider environment. They know the plant as it lives through the seasons. If they can take that knowledge and still keep the sense of wonder and joy of experiencing a flower, then I envy the extra depth of their experience...
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