“Continuum theories or models explain variation as involving a gradual quantitative transition without abrupt changes or discontinuities. It can be contrasted with ‘categorical’ models which propose qualitatively different states.”
While in our minds Spring may feel like an event, it is, in fact, part of the continuum of the Earth’s response to its proximity to the Sun. Subtle changes occurring at the cellular level as the minutes of daylight increase.
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After a long, snowy, icy, snowy, cold, snowy Winter (did I say snowy?) it’s finally and officially Spring. A new season, new beginnings and a time to begin gardening and blogging again.
If I had to choose one word for this season it would be “wonder.” Wonder at the resilient little green shoots popping up from the frozen ground, wonder at the diversity and symmetrical perfection of each new blossom, wonder at their array of colors.
And so, to begin this season of wonder, a fabulous pink and white tulip from the just ended Spring Bulb Show at the Lyman Conservatory at Smith College. And, beneath that, a piece by Rachel Carson from her book The Sense of Wonder.
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A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the source of our strength.
Rachel Carson
The Sense of Wonder
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