noticing nature
Today, I have been driving up along the US pacific coast, coming back from my yearly trip to California. It's about 12 hours total. I usually put on an audiobook on the way there and I usually finish it by the time I arrive.
invention of nature
This year, the audio book was The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wolf, a biography of the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt is probably one of the most influential scientists of the 1800s, but I hadn't really known much about him before reading this biography. It's strange how some people are just forgotten in the public eye, even the most famous ones of the day.
Something that struck me while listening is the feeling of being connected to nature that Humboldt and his contemporary romantics emphasized. They would say that scientists could not truly understand the natural world from books and abstractions. They needed to be out in the world, to experiment with physical things, in order to truly grasp nature's patterns. I wonder what they would think of our increasing use of computers. Certainly they admired tools that gave scientists new senses into the world, like the cyanometer which inspired this poem by Lord Byron:
Humboldt, ‘the first of travellers,’ but not
The last, if late accounts be accurate,
Invented, by some name I have forgot,
As well as the sublime discovery’s date,
An airy instrument, with which he sought
To ascertain the atmospheric state,
By measuring ‘the intensity of blue’:
O, Lady Daphne! let me measure you!
Are our new machines like telescopes or encyclopedias?
writing down what i notice
I was inspired to be more present in the world. Thus, when I stopped for dinner, I decided to just take a notecard and write down what occurred to me, rather than reading a book or going on my phone.
The place where I stopped is a pizza place at the border of northern California, called Smoked Tomato Pie. What a cool name for a pizza shop. The woman taking orders described the menu as "my dishes", which made me wonder if she's the owner. She certainly had an air of owning the place, coordinating everyone coming in and sometimes checking in on the kitchen, constantly maintaining a perfect smile.
The art on the walls was eclectic. On one wall, there are black and white ink portraits of famous musicians. I recognized Bob Marley and Marilyn Monroe. On another wall lay drawings of a dog, cat, and pheasant made out of musical symbols. The whole note 𝅝 formed the nose for both the dog and the cat.
I always wondered how restaurants choose their art. A print of a Ukiyo-e style Japanese painting of a lady hangs on yet another wall, next to an abstract painting that's 3/4 red and 1/4 white. Why did they pick these? Was it laying around? Did some fan of Japanese and abstract art give them these? Did they order these specifically for this space? I still wonder.
I noticed the bathroom sign is marked as "whatever", with a picture of a mermaid and a person in a wheelchair. Weirdly, it makes me feel safer. To me, the layout of bathrooms are the clearest indication of sentiments on gender identity in a building. The best are bathrooms with a clear sign indicating they are unisex, silently telling us that the owner doesn't think your gender should dictate which room you pee in. The most frustrating are places with single stalls that are still gendered. Whyy?
leftover thoughts
So with that thought, I finished my dinner and went to the bathroom. I'm back at the motel now where I will spend the night.
There is a raw feeling that I really enjoyed as I looked out into the world and wrote down thoughts onto a notecard. It felt less intrusive than having a phone or book out, I just felt more present within the restaurant. Perhaps I will try writing a few more posts like this. Maybe someday I could be worthy of the scientist title in the eyes of the romantics!