permaculture

[Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

This is a generality that I am uncomfortable with and haven't personally 
observed to be true. I know plenty of young people who are narrow minded and 
stuck into some paradigm or other. And plenty of older people who are willing 
to question anything and everything and have been doing so for decades, 
working through quite a lot of ideas, experiences, etc, in the process. They 
are quite, quite interesting people to talk to. 

True observation of a system, as in permaculture design, entails setting 
aside preconceptions. One of the exercises I do with my students is to have 
them observe unfamiliar things without attempting to impose their assumptions 
or paradigms or preconceptions about it. This is an equally difficult 
exercise for both young and old, except for those who have already practiced 
doing that. 

I do understand that it can seem that some older people have become much more 
"fixed" in their ways. I enjoy interacting with young people because they 
have not committed to a paradigm and aren't so fixed, in some cases. I think 
there is something to be said for both sides, but I don't like the 
generalities as that becomes stereotyping so easily - the idea that older 
people can't change their minds or think outside the box, etc, is certainly 
as fixed and narrow a paradigm as any I've heard expressed. 

Best, Cory


> I find that in this decade of my life I learn and act better, and make
> fewer mistakes, when I approach everything by firstly laying aside my
> own pre conceived ideas. I can pass on my life experience, but younger
> people are much sharper at picking up on a dead approach to a topic.
> Times have changed.