NUMENON |
PONDERING CORE ESSENCE
NUMENON |
I began the New Year by completing my reading of "The Book of Eels; Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World" by Patrik Svensson. This was a thoughtful gift from my family. As an example of how truly strange 2020 was, this might have been the first book I've read to completion since 2019. Maybe my reading habits are finally back on track, and this was a prime vehicle to get me there. A combination of natural history, fish, biology and cultural lore, I was certain to find this work interesting. Add the generous splash of philosophy, an exploration of paternal relationships and a Swedish setting, and I was sure to find it unique. Add the layer of metaphysics and a discussion of meaning, and I was a perfect recipient for this thoughtful gift. Or perhaps a better way to put it; this was the perfect, thoughtful gift for this recipient. I'll be honest, I know enough about the natural history, life cycle and plight of catadromous Atlantic eels (North American and European) that I wasn't surprised about too much of the "mystery" attributed to them. On the other hand, I'll be doubly honest and admit that the drain of daily, workaday life has robbed me of the capacity to truly appreciate the wondrous mysteries of the eel. "Knowing" what I think I "know" about them had become enough for me. My curiosity here has been stunted. Perhaps this illustrates my intellectual limitations, or maybe it's simply a matter of available time and energy (both are limited resources, use of which needs to be prioritized) for consideration of such things. Regardless, this might be my first lesson from this reading; my lack of wonder shortchanges both the eel and my appreciation for the work of the giants, on whose effort and suffering my so-called "understanding" of the eel (natural history, biology, scientific investigations, etc.) rests. Despite my shortcomings, I am quite confident that this recent (2019) work is well complemented by another I read several years ago. My copy is packed away and unavailable for reference at this time, but as I recall, "Eels : An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish" by James Prosek was similarly engrossing. The paternal exploration of Svensson was perhaps replaced here by a deeper treatment of the eel's impact on different cultures, and so maybe it is more about the eel than about the author; but then again, perhaps not. Svensson's work is clearly as much about human relations as about the eel itself; and as discussed below, perhaps simply tackling a subject like this automatically transforms that subject into something beyond its simple being. I tagged a few pages of the book while I was reading; something at each had caught my attention. Now, it's time to try to figure it out! "Metaphysics is... an attempt to describe the true nature of things, the whole of reality. It claims there's a difference between existence per se and the characteristics of that existence. It also claims that the two questions are separate. The eel is. Existence comes first. But what it is, is a completely different matter." (page 25) I would argue that this is what my entire blogging effort is about. Go ahead, check out the header, above. Heck, check out the block quote footer, below. Leopold was saying the same thing about his tired Wisconsin farm. My Lund is nothing but a machine, but what it represents is my ability to get out on the water and express myself. Fishing is most simply my chosen manner of enjoying time off, but what it represents for me is connection to the natural world. I do fish, but what that has helped me become is a man (occasionally) at peace with himself and his place. And so, eels are eels; somewhat unique fishes with a well-earned air of mystery. Because they've been variously important food sources, they've been on mankind's radar for millennia. Because of their hidden life cycle, we've had the opportunity to wonder about them. Because they've been slow to reveal the secrets of their true nature, the depth of that wonder is amplified. We are interested in eels in ways that we are not, for instance, in deepwater gulpers, anglers, or chimaera. We know less about these fish than we do about the eel; and yet, somehow, there's been an Eel Question since at least Aristotle. Which leads me to this; with respect to maintaining an active eel-fishing enterprise in Sweden, it might not make dollars or sense. But, without maintaining the centuries-old ways and humble seashore property rights: "The interest in the eel, and thus the eel itself, will be lost. This is the great paradox... in order to understand the eel, we have to have an interest in it, and to have an interest in it we have to continue to hunt, kill and eat it... An eel is never allowed to simply be an eel. It's never allowed just to be. Thus it has also become a symbol of our complex relationship with all the other forms of life on this planet" (page 95) I do not fish for food, and so I've minimized the killing and eating, but my interest in knowing about my quarry, their habits and habitats, my interest in having them available, protected (or at least regulated) and in robust populations in healthy environments, is my way of making these fish matter. And not just my quarry, but their natural prey and predators, too. And perhaps not just them, but myself, too. My interest helps to influence public access, fisheries policies, innovation within boating and tackle industries, support for environmental protection programs, and more. If we collectively just let the striper (or tuna, or bonefish, or shark or trout...) be, if we weren't interested enough in them to recognize their ecological roles, uniqueness or plights, we'd never be able to argue or act on their collective behalf. I've no interest in drowning, but simply treading water is both so tiring and unsatisfactory. I want my efforts (whether at work, play or relationships) to contribute to continuous improvement. Which is why this last quote caught my eye: "Utopian deadlock... the measures put in place to protect... are not only insufficient, they also risk becoming a form of placating misdirection. As long as we cling to what we think we know, what we believe to be right, the... situation will never improve, but instead worsen. And while the problem continues to be debate, time passes" (page 219) Our one true limiting resource is time. With a bit of luck, one can accumulate some extra wealth and possibly influence, but we all have limited time in which to make our mark. We all need to be efficient with our time and efforts. So we've metaphysically progressed from questions of is/be? to what? to now, why? For starters, Why not? simply seems to be an unacceptable answer. Why? Because we are fortunate enough to be aware of our existence; we want to make something of ourselves. I want that something to have left behind a better situation than I originally fell into. I want to be involved with interesting, meaningful things. I want to use my available time to develop an understanding of my place. I want to be able to ask, Why? And I even want to have some sense of how to answer, Why? The Eel Question stumped Aristotle, perhaps the last (Western) human to be in a position to know everything worth knowing at the time. It's going to take a lot less of a mystery to stump me. But, I am glad enough to be in a position to ponder, and to know that I am in good company when I struggle with the value of my efforts to make sense of things, or wonder why it's so important to me to understand my next fish. (I do recognize that this might be incomprehensible and/or worthless. My apologies if you find that to be the case.) Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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Steve LachanceVia Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Michigan and now, back to New England! Archives
June 2024
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