"A boy asked his little friend, 'Why does the math book look sad?''Because it has too many problems,' replied the little boy's friend.""If you spend your time chasing the butterflies, they will fly away. But if you spend your time building a beautiful garden, the butterflies will come to you. And if they don't, you still have the beautiful garden," said Cananga while looking at the 'Floating Lady' in the Dubai Beautiful Garden, lying in the air, arms outstretched without a care in the world as her long hair dangles to the earth."This beautiful metaphor I've been mentioned, encourages us to focus on creating something lasting and meaningful rather than constantly chasing fleeting experiences. Try to visualize it in your mind, the butterflies as moments of joy, excitement, or novelty. When we chase after these moments, we’re often seeking instant gratification or short-lived pleasures. However, like butterflies, these moments can be elusive. They flutter away, leaving us wanting more.Instead of chasing butterflies, consider investing your time and effort in building something substantial—a symbolic garden. Of course, what is meant here is not the 'Ivory Tower', which refers to a state of privileged isolation or separation from the practical realities of the real world. To live or be in an ivory tower means to be unaware of or deliberately avoid ordinary and unpleasant aspects of life. The phrase originated from the French critic Sainte-Beuve, who described poet Alfred de Vigny as living in an ivory tower in 1837.A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside to cultivate plants and other forms of nature. Gardens are often designed for their visual appeal or aesthetic purpose. They incorporate natural and artificial elements, including plants, statuary, fountains, and other features. As functional uses, gardens serve as spaces for relaxation, leisure, and recreation. People can enjoy the beauty of nature, walk, read, or simply unwind. Some gardens function as botanical collections, showcasing various plant species. They provide opportunities for learning and research. While many gardens are ornamental, some also produce food crops. Gardens can attract wildlife, including birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects. Providing food, water, and shelter encourages biodiversity. The important thing is that gardens play a role in environmental conservation by promoting green spaces, reducing soil erosion, and improving air quality. Probably, you can find an Ivory Tower in a garden, yet no one ever finds a real garden in an Ivory Tower—even if it is presented, it's only a 'Dreamed Garden'.The garden represents the cumulative result of our actions, relationships, and endeavors. It’s a place of growth, beauty, and sustenance. When we cultivate our garden—whether it’s our skills, relationships, or personal projects—we create something lasting.If we focus on building our garden, the butterflies (meaningful moments) will naturally come to us. We’ll attract positive experiences, connections, and opportunities. Even if the butterflies don’t arrive, we still have the beautiful garden—the fruits of our labor, personal growth, and the memories we’ve created. Life is a balance between appreciating the butterflies and tending to our gardens. Both have their place, but the garden provides a more sustainable source of joy and fulfillment.In Ancient Greece, the philosopher Epicurus named his thinkers’ community near Athens, The Garden. In this verdant sanctuary, he and his followers found their ataraxia or peace of mind. George Orwell once said, ‘Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening.’ Research now proves what we have sensed for hundreds if not thousands of years: gardening helps us lead happier and healthier lives. Increasingly—through volunteer-run projects such as community gardens and mental-health charities—it is becoming a force for social and environmental change.A garden is a space you inhabit. It envelops you, not just with its physical boundaries, but with its spirit – a distinct nature incorporating movement, light, sound, and fashion. There are other difficulties too, from the vagaries of the weather and the threat of disease to the fact that gardens are ever-changing and therefore never complete. Our natural desire to create beauty is nowhere better served than in a garden, and this is despite gardening’s many challenges. Dreams of gardens can be dazzling collages of all sorts of influences that come together in the mind’s eye, either layered onto your plot or just pure, overblown fantasy. For a few minutes, hours, or even weeks (especially if you put pen to paper), you can revel in this make-believe plot. Sometimes you do eventually make it real so that your dream becomes a reality.Voltaire, the great 18th-century French philosopher, writer, and historian, admits that gardening is the best thing he has ever done. Gardening is 'labor'. It causes backache, sore knees, and rough hands. While gardening roots us in the here and now, it also links us to our human past. We may not be conscious of it at the moment, but we are doing the same jobs, often using the same tools that our ancestors have relied on for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Gardening reminds us that we are human.Gardening is an exercise with a purpose. It’s as good for you as many kinds of sport. You burn more calories per minute digging than you do playing badminton or doing yoga or gymnastics. Being an all-around ‘sport’, gardening has the bonus of working for all the main muscle groups. It gives your heart and lungs a workout. It increases muscle strength and flexibility, boosts your immune system, improves sleep quality, and lowers cholesterol and blood pressure. It may even help increase your life expectancy: exercising in nature rather than indoors stimulates an enzyme known as telomerase, which is believed to help regenerate DNA in our chromosomes and therefore possibly prevent age-related illnesses.Gertrude Jekyll wrote 'a garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.' Working with nature is a constant and salutary reminder that as humans we’re never fully in charge. As you let go of expectations of everything always going your way, you open yourself to change and even revelation, not only in the garden but in yourself. The experience is richer for being less predictable.For centuries gardens were designed as sacred spaces; worldly reflections of paradise, that eternal, idealized garden. The way we see, experience, and even design our gardens has been influenced by cultural and religious concepts that go back to ancient history. The unreachable yet covetable Eden–a blessed place of peace, harmony, and spiritual enlightenment–has become an unwritten, often unconscious, aspiration for many gardeners.And thus gardens are a lot more than just beautiful or productive plots. They can help us transcend the physical world and connect us with the numinous. Truly, gardens are thresholds to another world. They open doors to the metaphysical. But not all gardens are blessed with this kind of magic. They might be filled with beautiful flowers, and have immaculate lawns and great bones, but they lack spirit and atmosphere. Quite possibly they are unloved and looked after. Or maybe these gardens don’t reflect their spirit of place–that sense of being inspired by, in sync with, their environment. The best gardens possess an atmosphere that transcends reality, opening a door into the invisible. Happiness includes appreciation of the beauty and value of our moment-to-moment experience. Rather than rushing to the next, more valuable activity, we can pause and appreciate the spaciousness and value of the present-moment awareness.Gardens are not only functional outdoor spaces but also artistic expressions. Their aesthetics encompass design principles, balance, contrast, and harmony, making them captivating and delightful to the senses. Aesthetically pleasing gardens achieve balance, ensuring they don’t feel too heavy or sparse on one side. This doesn’t necessarily mean a symmetrical design; asymmetrical balance can be visually pleasing. Gardens use contrast to create interest. Contrasting elements like color, texture, and form add visual dynamism. A harmonious garden integrates various elements seamlessly. It combines natural beauty with architectural precision, creating a cohesive and pleasing whole.Aesthetic value in the environmental context is often viewed as a strongly human value. Aesthetic judgements are made from a human perspective and the perspective of beings with capacities like ours. We bring our experience and aesthetic sensitivity to bear on base properties perceived in the environment, our experience combines with what we perceive, and aesthetic appreciation emerges. Some aesthetic judgements are described as anthropomorphic in their ascription of human qualities to nature, such as an emotion. These facts about aesthetic judgements show that aesthetic value is anthropogenic or generated by humans.Gardens serve as powerful metaphors for life, offering valuable lessons and insights. When planting a garden, you create a vision for it. You don’t randomly scatter seeds; instead, you consider what type of garden you want, its purpose, what to grow, and how to lay it out. Similarly, in life, having a clear vision is essential. Define the life you want, your mission, goals, and experiences. Without a vision, life can become overgrown and chaotic, lacking direction.In gardening, you start with a wish list of plants but then prioritize based on available space and resources. Trying to grow everything at once leads to an unmanageable mess. Gardens teach patience. Seeds take time to sprout, plants to bloom, and fruits to ripen. Life unfolds similarly. Likewise, in life, prioritize your goals. Focus on what truly matters to avoid overwhelm. You can’t pursue everything simultaneously, Growth requires nurturing, consistent effort, and resilience. Just as plants need sunlight, water, and care, personal growth demands attention and persistence.Gardens adapt to seasons, weather, and soil conditions. They teach resilience and flexibility. Remove unwanted plants to allow the desired ones to flourish. But not every flower is flawless, yet they all contribute to the garden’s beauty. Gardens outlive their caretakers. Planting trees or perennials ensures a legacy. In life, we must let go of negativity, unhealthy relationships, and old habits. Clear the mental and emotional clutter to make space for positive growth. Life throws curveballs—unexpected challenges, setbacks, or changes. Adaptability helps us thrive despite adversity. Embrace imperfections in yourself and others. They add character and depth.People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it, says Simon Sinek. Have you found your 'True North'? True North, which is always 'Up' (top of a chart or map), has come to mean 'doing the right thing' in terms of a culture of quality, productivity, work spirit, ethical behavior, focus, and sustainability. It means you are going in the right direction and it answers the question 'What is our aim?' 'How can we be sustainable for the long term, in morale for work spirit as well as contributing to a Sustainable Planet?'Then, consider your impact on future generations. What will you leave behind? The plants in the garden don't always have shady foliage. In one season, it will look shady, but as the seasons change, the leaves begin to fall, allowing new leaves to grow. All of this is beyond human control.Gardens offer unique educational opportunities, connecting people with nature, fostering curiosity, and promoting holistic learning experiences. Whether in botanic gardens, school gardens, or campus eco-gardens, the relationship between education and green spaces remains essential.In our lives, education plays a crucial role, offering numerous benefits both on an individual level and for society as a whole. Education provides stability. By acquiring knowledge and skills, you increase your chances of better career opportunities. Education is essential for achieving equality. When everyone has equal access to education, social class gaps decrease. Education fosters self-dependency. When you’re educated, you can rely on your abilities and choices. Education contributes not only to personal growth but also to global well-being, and a more peaceful world by fostering understanding and cooperation. Education isn't just about textbooks; it’s about gaining knowledge, skills, and perspectives that shape our lives and the world around us.The history of education extends far back into ancient civilizations. In Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (around 2061-2010 BC), the earliest known formal school was developed under the direction of Kheti, treasurer to Mentuhotep II. In Mesopotamia, education was initially limited to scribes who mastered cuneiform writing. Most boys learned their father’s trade or were apprenticed. Ashurbanipal (685–c. 627 BC), a king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, was proud of his scribal education. Education in ancient times involved knowledge of various subjects, including mathematics, horsemanship, hunting, and craftsmanship.Philosophy of education as we know it began in ancient Greece as an integral facet of the philosophy of Socrates (c.470—399 Bc) and others who called themselves philosophers, but whom we (following Socrates and his followers) call sophists and orators. Philosophical attention to primary education was not associated with the pedagogical claims of philosophy itself, on the other hand, but with the democratization of Athens, the invention of group lessons that made education accessible to larger numbers of Athenians, and the decline of Athens in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian Wars. With education made accessible to a wider spectrum of Athenians, the question of whether areté (virtue, goodness, or excellence) can be taught, or only inherited, was in the air.Socrates describes the nature of goodness, conceived as an abstract entity as the highest object of knowledge or understanding, and one that must be known by those who govern a society (in the Greek context, polls or city-state) if they are to be capable guardians of justice and the common good. Education is not, as some think, a putting of knowledge into the mind like 'putting sight into blind eyes,' but the art of turning the student in the right direction. This implies first, that a desire to learn or love of learning must be awakened, and second that the desiring intellect must be directed toward 'higher things' that are truly knowable. What is knowable is not visible and changing ('becoming') things, but things like mathematical objects that have natures that are the same through and through and are unchanging ('being').In the history of education, Alfred North Whitehead writes, the most striking phenomenon is that schools of learning, which at one epoch are alive with a ferment of genius, in a succeeding generation exhibit merely pedantry and routine. The reason is, that they are overladen with inert ideas. Education with inert ideas is not only useless: it is, above all things, harmful—Corruptio optimi pessima [the corruption of the best is the worst of all].This proverbial expression highlights a profound truth: When something excellent or virtuous becomes tainted or corrupted, the resulting state is often worse than if it had been mediocre from the start. Imagine a situation where a noble cause, a talented individual, or a well-intentioned system becomes compromised. The consequences can be more severe precisely because of the initial high standard. In other words, the fall from grace is more dramatic when it involves something that was originally considered the best or ideal. For instance, consider a brilliant leader who succumbs to corruption, tarnishing their legacy. Or think about a once-pristine environment that becomes polluted due to negligence. In both cases, the corruption of what was initially excellent leads to the worst outcomes.We will continue with the topic of education in the next episode. Bi 'idhnillah."Cananga then vocalizing,Take on me.Take me on.I'll be gone—in a day or two *)
Citatiins & References:
- Claire Masset, Why We Garden, 2023, Batsford
- David E. Cooper, A Philosophy of Gardens, 2006, Oxford University Press
- Emily Brady, Aesthetics of the Natural Environment, 2003, Edinburgh University Press
- Randall Curren (Ed.), Philosophy of Education: An Anthology, 2007, Blackwell Publishing
- Alfred North Whitehead, The Aims of Education, 1967, Free Press
*) "Take on Me" written by Morten Harket, Pal Waaktaar, Magne (mags) Furuholmen
