In her statement on mirror neurons, Jen Altman cautions against making
elaborate assumptions about what is going on, preferring to leave the mystery
of the knowing field and to 'work with what we are given'.
I'd like to relate an experience in support of Jen's point here. I was
recently in a group being taken by an Aboriginal Elder through the Simpson
Desert in Central Australia. He pulled us over to an inconspicuous tree. We
gathered around, expectantly. 'Feel the bark of this whitewood tree', he said.
The bark was rough on one side and smooth on the other. The Elder went on, 'the
smooth faces east, the rough faces west.'
Immediately our group members (myself included) set about suggesting
'scientific' explanations for such a phenomenon which would fit the tree neatly
into our understanding. The Elder simply looked at us and said, 'the tree is
provided, we use it.'
As it happens, the dunes in the Simpson run north-south, so wherever the tree
grew, Aboriginal people had a primary set of coordinates, yet it was stories
linked around their mythology that led them to water.
Thank you, Jen.
Denis Ladbrook
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