Pruning: Learning

'Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and the pruning knife.'

 Margaret S Fuller (1839)  Life of Mackintosh, The American Montly Magazine, Vil 1: Vol 7, p.575

Natural talent will develop without formal training, but will none the less benefit from cultivation and focus. 

 

Francis Bacon (1597, 1625) discussed 'proyning, by study' in his essay  Of Studies :

'They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.'

Francis Bacon, (1625) The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans

  

Miller (1995) discusses Bacon's 'pruning by study' as 'self-cultivation':

'Pruning a "natural plant" directs the plant's growth by blocking the wasteful or inefficient use of its resources in order that they may be expended, and the plant expanded, in a narrower yet more fruitful direction.'

John, J. Miller (1995) Pruning by Study: Self-cultivation in Bacon's Essays, Papers on Language & Literature, Aut 95, Vol. 31:4

Prune: Priorities

Many games are escapist in nature, whether its escaping work-life in leisure or the real world in fantasy. I wanted some such escape. So I could escape my lists, deadlines and pressures, and to give my brain a rest.

'Prune, by Joel Mc Donald is an artistic, zen like game about cultivating trees in a hostile world,' according to Christine Chan (2015). It was recommended to me as a zen-like experience which I looked forward to. I didn't however know that I would care about the trees and find as I swiped my finger to prune and shape the tree to grow towards the light and watched its destruction in darkness, that my heart would start racing as if I was playing a less zen-like game. 

Imagine pruning and shaping a real live delicate bonsai tree at Grand Theft Auto speed, with the rate of growth speeded up. In light the tree flowers but as it grows, if you turn the wrong corner or snip the wrong bit it could mean total devastation.

I saw this game much like life. We are growing towards the light (enlightenment I hope rather than the one at the end of the tunnel). Darkness of spirit or sadness or lack of knowledge can impede our progress, cause doubts, drag us down and limit growth and development. But if we prune away the unnecessary, just prioritise according to our needs and values we could have a beautiful and fruitful life.

(Above are some stills of my game, taken early in the game. No time later if I wanted to save the tree...is that more social commentary about selfies...and the art of being too busy superficially documenting life to live it meaningfully?)