dear world

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The reciprocal truth of the observer changing what is observed is that what is observed changes the observer. This was a view espoused by Goethe, and not just in the obvious ways you might imagine. 

According to him, we literally grow faculties. 

He held that an object properly contemplated generates in the beholder the faculty proper to its own perception: ‘Every new object, well contemplated and clearly seen, opens up a new organ within us’. 

Contemplation of the world in a spirit of openness and humility fundamentally enlarges our being, where dogma and complacency simply narrow it. Equally it enables the greater reality of the cosmos – whatever it may be – to fulfil itself through us.


—Iain McGilchrist
The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, 

and the Unmaking of the World


 

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People ask “what can I do”?

Know thyself. The work is great, but we are capable of greater things than we know.

—Dr. Iain McGilchrist
Darwin Lectures 2024, excerpts

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One regret, dear world, 

That I am determined not to have 

When I am lying on my deathbed 

Is that 

I did not kiss you enough.

―Hafiz

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