I Dream of Patripples.

"The awful shadow of some unseen PowerFloats though unseen among us; visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower;
Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, It visits with inconstant glance Each human heart and countenance;Like hues and harmonies of evening, Like clouds in starlight widely spread,Like memory of music fled,
Like aught that for its grace may be Dear,and yet dearer for its mystery."

Cultivating the Mind.

An idea as a plant.

When we tend to one and feed its tension, it tends to bloom with great intention. When we leave its fruit and flower on the vine to linger, it tends not to wait, rather to wilt and wither - or ferment like sour vinegar. Sometimes an idea takes root in the heart, and sometimes in the mind. Often, it only blooms in time. If an idea requires time, and yet not to be left to linger, then we may come to ask ourselves: "How can I fan at the flames which surround me not so much as to snuff my own lights out, only just enough to stretch the seeds of my insights out of their own stiff shells?"

A plant is only as healthy as its garden. This means that, beyond its own direct self interest, a plant benefits from developing strong roots - strong roots make for strong gardens, after all. How can this flower - this idea do a thing like this? It is a flower, after all, and flowers are not known for their agency. A plant strengthens its roots through patience, symbiosis, and biodiversity.

seeding a thought.

If an idea is a plant, then it must have sprouted from a seed. From where did that seed spring? Was it born in the belly, between breaths - or did it blink itself into life like a bulb between our eyes?

I view each of us as embodying both a gardener and a pollinator of thought - a worldwide hive full of bees wishing to be their own keepers.

When we view the world in this way, it is easy to envision how an idea might first self-pollinate through some social interaction - picture a dandelion dancing in the wind, while from its head sips a dander-backed dancer: a nectar-drunk bumblebee, ready to buzz off to the next bulb, where it will drink more, dance more, and - more importantly - exchange plant matter.

When a bird or a bee does this, it is called pollination - when we do this, it is called conversation and collaboration.

Whenever we share an idea, or have one shared with us, we are engaging in a symbiotic resource exchange of the mind. As with the bee, who gets to buzz and vibe its way to solid status in the hive - or with the bird who exchanges seed for seeds - we are giving and receiving raw data, processed through a specially-wired natural supercomputer which has been specialized over millennia to engage in just this sort of exchange. We really are an incredible species - and part of an even more incredible ecosystem - when we're cooperating with one another.

A thinker as a gardener.

If an idea is a flowering plant whose roots stem from seeds, then the thinker of the thought is a gardener. In order for any idea to have reached bloom: it first needed to be a seed, then someone had to buy it a bit of time, and give it some attention to boot. Only then could this seed - whose weeds needed weeding (axonal pruning), whose time stood at tension - even think to become a thought.

A garden is only as good as its gardener. If the gardener never waters their garden, nor prunes any weeds, they won't have much of a garden. Wild tangles have their place, as does a sandy space, but it must not bog down the garden.

This is my first post, and I'm making it as a promise to self-seed going forward. My aim with patripples is to create and share a mind garden. Each of us are pollinators and gardeners of ideas - cultivators of thought. Together, I believe we can foster a collective mind garden whose flowers bloom with such natural force that we are forced to reckon with ourselves - peacefully - and then spring forth smarter, wiser, and more collaborative than ever before.

If you haven't already, go see the data visualization page! Much of the content from here is meant to synergize with what you can find there.