viewing this tree
with its ten thousand stories,
things just fall apart

I should have mentioned, though I'm sure you're glad that I didn't, that whilst on the way to meet my wife in the city (see previous post), I was listening to that most excellent podcast, Philosophize This! The host, in talking about Schopenhauer(the subject of the broadcast) did a little necessary revision on an aspect of Kant's philosophical position of reality, to-wit, that there is a rough map of reality that we all have as a result of the interaction of our senses and mind with our environment, and that there is reality itself, the actual world of phenomena. The latter can never be fully perceived or understood. We are left, alas, with the rough guide.

Which got me thinking about an elderly tree I was standing before in Hyde Park, shortly after. My perception of the tree, limited by my knowledge of it and my human eyesight, was really quite meager. I am inadequate in this respect, though remain in awe, regardless. Still, this map that I have inside my head, seeming so real, is tatty, torn and blurred. Fit to purpose, sure, but fragile upon deeper reflection.