Remember when you last arranged to meet a friend or loved one, you waited and waited but to no avail ? You become worried, apprehensive, thoughts of maybe a breakdown, an accident or even worse ? This leads to a minor panic, your heart rate increases, your body perspires profusely and your mind is running wild...
Then suddenly out of the blue your
long awaited friend or loved one turns the corner in front of you, your wandering grief
ridden thoughts subside. The back of your neck feels cool and clammy, your face delivers a
wry smile, you gasp and take a large intake of breath, your life returns casually back
to normality.
The women holding a parasol, her back toward us, she is facing out to sea waiting patiently for the ship carrying her loved one to appear on the far horizon. The vessel is long overdue she becomes anxious, thoughts of shipwreck are instilled in her laboured mind. She prays, but to no avail, because running parallel with her on another distant beach, her loved one is fighting desperately for his own existence, clinging to life he's weak bedraggled and delirious, his only thoughts are for his loved one. They both reside in the same space within time but are on roads with different destinies.
The figure situated central is carrying a weighty cart wheel, with still night scene set behind and within, plus entangled in the spokes of the cart wheel is a pocket watch, the hands pointing to 2 o'clock, all represent and are symbolic for time, destiny, fear and death.
The man is naked clinging to a tree life form, his lower limbs are dissolving and becoming one with the tree, thus giving the impression that all is lost, the earth is devouring the remnants of his short life and becoming the benefactor and guardian angel of his soul.
The blue raging sea enhances the fears of a calamity more intensely.
The deer adjacent the beached vessel represents all the animals of the world, they too on a much larger scale take part in the above scenario.
Past thinking has often considered the senses and the emotions to be 'primitive', and assumed Man's recent development was restricted to intellect alone. Yet the brain interconnections are vast, and exist between all areas. Evolutionary changes have affected our senses and emotions also. The enjoyment of music, the love of a partner, the appreciation of art, all are as far ahead of animal abilities, in evolutionary terms, as is our ability to do maths or science.
Our sensitivity to the planet and other creatures, our willingness to extend our senses to the very large and very small, our feelings of inherent right and wrong, our talents for creation, our ability to smile and laugh, our love of the past and dreams for the future, our poetry, our intuition - all these qualities and more are evidence of our higher development, emotionally and sensually.
Complex systems are holistic ones, the value is in the whole. A view considering only one aspect is a very impoverished view. To appreciate and to develop the whole we need to integrate and consider all aspects of the system.
And Earth's largest complex system is us, the global community of Mankind...