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LIVING, LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING
IN A SMALL, FLAT WORLD
Until recent times, practically everyone was born into a
limited territory which might be called a small, flat world.
From the time of birth, children are an integral part of a
functioning community, a village or a tribal unit of some
kind. They could learn from their parents and families, and
from the village or tribe. A child can be imprinted with a
set of values. With a superior leader, the whole village or
group can achieve a higher level of living than their natural
instincts would produce.
At one time the planet was dominated by reptiles. Then
came the mammals, who succeeded by better protection of their
young and teaching them by example. The group mammals were
another advance.
We as humans are the supreme group mammals. Scientists
tell us that humans evolved. This may be so, but there is a
miracle in there somewhere, and I accept the miracle.
I am grateful about being born human and try to maintain
my humaness in the best sense.
So, humans are working mammals. We are almost unique in
this. We are the tool-using mammals. Our hands are the
supreme tools. With them, countless human-made tools have
been created. Our wonderful hands are controlled by our
brains and nervous systems. A certain area of the brain,
called the motor area, is devoted to muscle movement. Dr.
WIlder Penfield of Montreal, Canada was an early pioneer in
locating which areas of this motor area were devoted to
different muscles.
Dr. Carl Sagan in his book "The Dragons of Eden"
reproduces diagrams from Penfield's work. At medical school,
I studied anatomy for two years. I was greatly impressed by
the fact that the nerves to the hands were so large. There
were the median, ulnar and radial nerves. Our legs are so
much bigger that their nerves are only moderately larger.
Our ancestors, who were mostly born into a small, flat world,
were able to develop hand movements at an early age.
Everyone somewhere around the age of six was supposed to be
useful.
If one talks to old people who were born and raised on
small farms, almost all o them tell about the chores they
were expected to do as children. As a child, I often saw a
young boy driving a team of horses, hauling a load of grain
to the elevators in the village. Our rural ancestors were
born into a quiet world. Almost all sounds were sounds of
nature. If one heard music, it meant that the source was
nearby.
So almost all the sounds that a child heard were part of
the environment. The voices were those of people he or she
could know. There were no amplified sounds, no strange
voices. What people saw was all part of their small,flat
world.
So a child could develop the part of the brain that
controls hand movements and also a variety of other muscles.
Speech usually came easily because the child listened a lot
and could talk to all ages -- no segregation by age group.
When I lived in a village on the prairie, children often
acted as messengers. Therefore, it was necessary to talk to
adults who did not tolerate mumbling. When children ware
segregated by age group, there is no great need to be fluent
in the language. About thirty years ago, my sister had a
dress shop. One day a highschool girl came in and looked at
the lot of dresses. However, she only responded with simple
sounds, mostly grunts and shrugs. My sister decided that if
the girl could grunt, she could do likewise. So the two of
them grunted their way through the store.
My father was a very intelligent, highly educated man.
He gave up business to go into the ministry. So I mixed with
all age groups. I have witnesses many christenings,
weddings, and attended many funerals. So I early became
aware of birth, growth, aging and death, which is true of all
forms of life.
As a boy, I was privileged to live close to nature on
the unspoiled prairie. I was able to appreciate nature and
develop some reverence for life.
Some years ago, I made out about 300 Japanese verses
called Haiku. Haiku consists of seventeen syllables in three
lines arranged as five, seven and five syllables. I quote
two of them which illustrate what I have just written.
REBIRTH
Gently falling leaf
joining earth black living soil
part of life again.
MOTHER EARTH
The earth sustains me
I will walk respectfully
until I return.
Possibly all of us are designed to be part of a small,
flat world with a sense of territory. In such a world, it
was possible to develop what I call a group mind. A natural
leader of family in the village might develop who inspired
most or all of the people to live at a higher level than
their natural instincts. In this way, people could preserve
wisdom acquired from the past. On the other hand, groups
might break into warring factions. This is quite
destructive. It has destroyed many nations.
The late Sir Julian Huxley states that humans have not
evolved much physically over the past 30,000 years. He
suggests that the people with the best cultural plan and
values survived over those groups with less creative
cultures.
As individuals, we are all mortal, but we can live on
through our creative culture. In that way, we do not live or
die like a vegetable. People can live on through their
children, but only if the children sustain the culture.
