Large Fierce Mammal

“The animal called Man, like all others, represents a temporary pinnacle of evolutionary development aimed at filling a niche deemed by Nature to be necessary. The paths to individual fulfillment will vary as individuals vary – in their abilities, aptitudes, and level of understanding. All Nature’s creatures must continually face a fluctuating set of environmental circumstances and divine the options that exist. Sometimes the circumstances are slow to change and, for the most part, predictable. Sometimes they are terribly transient. And so, we have “The Moment” for which, if the NOW represents a desirable situation, the best option may be to go with the flow. If not, there are other options, including moving on, adapting in place, or dying.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – You Are What You Eat

I have spoken at length in the matter of Tools, and most particularly here just short of a decade ago I made these salient points:

“… (E)ach iteration of Man, leading up to the current free ranging model we meet for good or ill when abroad in the land every day, was a step on the road to development of advanced cognitive function including, very importantly, imagination, and the manual dexterity to put it to work. Every rung on the evolutionary ladder that led from the earliest proto-humans to you and me is characterized by the development and use of tools. Tools that increase the effectiveness of a hunter-gatherer equate to better fed hunter-gatherers who are more robust than less well equipped contemporaries. Enhanced efficiency in getting the basic necessities of life out of a day in the field means less energy expended and risk endured for the same reward you put your ass on the line and slugged it out for yesterday. More time for contemplation of better ways to do things, devising and making new tools and the techniques to go with them – even tools that will be used to make other tools.

“A real Tool then must be a True force multiplier – thus a True Tool, and to be that it must fit into one or more vital categories including, but not limited to, making a heretofore impossible job possible, a hard job easier, a risky job safer. In addition, it must conform to the following absolutes, each of which is so important that the order of their presentation is of no consequence –

• It must be maintainable.
• Its durability and longevity must not constitute a built-in guarantee of waste.
• Life with it must be superior to life without it.
• Neither its use, nor the job it was devised to perform, shall represent the creation of an equal or greater problem while solving another.
• It must not represent the lesser of two or more evils.
• For any given task, it must provide a dividend in the form of time expended, materials used, and/or energy required.
• It must exist to do a job that is necessary within the context of sound ecological and ergonomic practice.

“In short, it must serve within the balanced Economy of Nature, and not the wasteful “economy” of dollars and cents in which the soothing buzzword “sustainable” really describes business practices that will permit continued rates of growth and consumption – business as usual – with a smaller discernible impact. For any organism, getting through a day requires expenditure of energy and resources for the purpose of acquiring more energy and resources. Simply living in place requires at least a “break even” on that balance, but a higher return is required if the organism must hunt and catch its prey, for reproduction, the rearing of young, migration, overwintering, or hibernation. Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management. For example, the Way of the Wild demands of each parent that their offspring be made self-sufficient as quickly and efficiently as possible. A tool need not be a physical artifact – rest assured that skilled parenting is a Tool – but to be True it must help, not hinder, such processes, and must never represent a brilliant answer to a question that was never asked. Let’s look at a few modern examples that have gone that way, but didn’t have to.

“The cellular phone was devised to increase efficiency and enhance interpersonal communication. Taken at that, it can be a True Tool. As it has come to exist, it is nothing of the sort. It comes with planned obsolescence that will ensure its replacement well before the end of its service life, and is designed to be replaced rather than repaired. In use, it easily lends itself to distraction and attention overload along with unreasonable expectations of immediate contact with attendant damage to real human relations. A perceived need to be in constant contact with those absent from your presence while ignoring everything that surrounds you. Likewise, the ever present MP3 player, that might actually be a cellular phone, that pipes music into the ears of millions at this very moment, turned on the instant their ears were no longer required for anything else. Instead of using music to uplift, it gets used to filter out everything while the oblivious listener weaves down the sidewalk texting feverishly.

“The computer can be a tool with limitless potential; as a communications platform, or an enhancer of creative endeavours, it stands without peer. Connected to the Internet, it can provide a seemingly limitless window into the greatest Truths. Alas, it normally serves as a shallow conduit into the meanest, basest depths of human thought. A platform of self-expression from which nasty idiots wield their perversities from behind what they wishfully perceive to be walls of anonymity.

“All this having been said though, it’s clear that while a tool may be True or false, the difference can lie in its application as an expression of intent. Application is a creation of the human mind; trained and wielded properly, the human mind is the True True Tool. Think on this the next time you take your cellular phone in hand to text while you walk through the world, or feel compelled to answer that call mid-conversation with someone who’s standing right in front of you. When you fail to keep a commitment because you got caught up in facebook drama. It’s all about intention.

“After all, you might be filling the bath tub to wash the baby, or drown it.”

I have also spoken here on a word now nearly forgotten from the modern lexicon:

“There’s a very old word that sees little use today, but that I still persist in using – garniture. While it can refer to any item used to embellish or “garnish” something, I exclusively employ it in its other meaning – an assemblage of useful and related equipments, usually connected through common features of design, and representing key elements in accomplishment of goals considered important to the bearer. For example, there was a time when a well heeled gentleman might commission a serviceable garniture of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that made it obvious to the beholder that each item was part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owned it. In those days this might include arms and armour for the battlefield, items specific to hunting pursuits, clothing, and equestrian equipage. In my own small way, I adhere to these principles today, as do some of the people I know, whether they have a word for it or not.

“It should come as no surprise, however, that because a Tool need not be an object you can hold in your hand, likewise a garniture need not be an assemblage of physical artifacts. In fact, the very best and most important garniture one can assemble isn’t made of matter at all. It exists purely in the mind in the form of knowledge, skills, wits, and personality. Properly crafted, honed, and maintained, they will comprise, just as described above, a serviceable garniture of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that make it obvious to the beholder that each item is part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owns it. I would posit then that the Way of the Wild demands acquisition and diligent maintenance of the Tools that will form your Garniture, Tools that can never be broken, worn out, stolen or legislated away. That are always with you even when standing naked as the day you were born.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – The Word of the Day is “Garniture”

With all that fresh in mind, I will now posit that in Man’s imagining, creation, and use of True Tools to solve Real problems, what fits my definition of True and Real can be fitted into three categories:

1. Top of Mind Tier
2. Bridging Tier
3. Foundational Tier

Lest my numbering of the list, and use of “Tier” to describe each item lead you the wrong conclusion, I will add that these are intended to inform clarity rather than assign any comparative static importance to each. As you will come to understand as we move forward in this discussion, each exists because of, and in support of, the others rather than in any fixed relationship to them, and the only fixed quantity affecting which will apply most strongly in any given moment will be the fluid Reality of the wielder who has come to know that his or her stability within it has more to do with personal position than any ability to control the uncontrollable.

“Everything I spoke to there was about position which is the state you’ll be in when something happens that affects you, and this can be anything from life threatening; lost in a blizzard for example; to delightful; as in that first date with the one of your dreams. Career changing, perhaps in the form of a promotion bringing with it a raise in salary but with the requirement to relocate to another province or state; perhaps another country.

“The question is, put to the test and on demand, what can you bring to the party, and will it be the best of yourself?

“From these examples you can see that position can affect opportunity, but in the gravest extreme — the life threatening example — the question can be posed in the form of an unexpected pop quiz where wrong is the same as dead.” ~ A Long Winter’s Night — 2020 Edition Day 2: Position

Today we’ll take but a brief look at each Tier lest going too far too fast engender little but exhaustion of your indulgence, Goode Reader.

Top of Mind Tier:
Tools employed daily in engagement with your world where actions and choices are undertaken to generate the resources needed for daily living.

Bridging Tier:
Wisdom and judgement live here, supporting the Top Tier through roots set firmly in the Foundational Tier below.

Foundational Tier:
The compass. The tiller. The knowledge base and seat of power, though never that of laurels. Inexhaustible in its capacity, the more you pack into it the more you realize needs to be added. Without the top two Tiers it accomplishes nothing. Without it, the others are doomed to failure.

Think on these until next time Good Reader when we will delve further, and join me now in this perfectly illustrative parting shot from the inimitable Fandabi Dozi.