Coral Reefs and Community Ethics

Are we better together, or alone?


Family, community, country. Democracy and globalism. These constructs are all about togetherness. Are we better together? Very often. Together, as in "us and them" doesn't always work, though (see previous post on James Doty and "tribalism.") But if we are really, truly in it together, we seem to make great strides.

Families produce healthy kids. Communities make a healthy home, full of resources for happy citizens. Countries loosely embrace millions of little communities and foster exchanges and resources. Ask an early childhood teacher what a good day looks like in his classroom and you are likely to hear something like this: the kids enjoyed playing together. Research tells us that early development of social and emotional skills indicates success later in life. We emphasize team-building, leadership and decision-making in youth development. Each of these skills is developed within a social network, because we all operate in a social network. Getting along is important.

Nature teaches by example. Community action and power is in evidence everywhere. These are both practical and metaphorical lessons on community, power and health. The wolf pack hunts together for success, and they share the bounty. The geese fly in formation to cut down on drag and fatigue during migration. Small fish swim in balls to escape predators. These are all obvious examples of community effort furthering the cause of the species. But coral reefs take us even deeper into the complexity and beauty of community ethics.

Coral reefs are a colony of coral polyps-- small jelly animals that take excess carbon dioxide (entering the ocean from the atmosphere) and turn it into a limestone habitat. This habitat is home to polyps and many other critters. Coral reefs sequester carbon, buffer shorelines from high seas and erosion, create sand for our beaches and provide beauty and recreation. Valuable medicines are manufactured from organisms found in coral reefs. And, very interestingly, polyp colonies build their corals with unique, sophisticated engineering. The "hyperbolic geometry" of the coral reef, with its frills and ruffles, maximizes negative curvature and has taught quantum physicists and mathematicians much about the architecture of space and time. As it turns out, the strength of hyperbolic geometry has everything to do with a network, a knitting together of line, a pattern of space--and this knitted quality is what makes it so darned (pun intended) strong.

So the coral reef is, in all aspects, a terrific metaphor for the strength and purpose of effective community. That's why twin sisters, Margaret and Christine Wertheim launched the Crochet Coral Reef project. Margaret is science writer and Christine is an artist. They were interested in the work of mathematician Dr. Diana Taimina and her "hyperbolic crocheting," and they saw the connection between this work and the Great Barrier Reef of their native Australia. The Great Barrier Reef and all reefs on the planet are endangered by global warming; we may be looking at the extinction of all reefs if we do not take action to curb temperature rise. The Wertheims launched Crochet Coral Reef to raise awareness about the beauty and complexity of reefs, and of life. Through learning how to replicate corals through crochet--actual knitting!--communities raise awareness together, and remember the beauty and strength of their own group efforts.


"The basic process for making these forms is a simple pattern or algorithm, which on its own produces a mathematically pure shape, but by varying or mutating this algorithm, endless variations and permutations of shape and form can be produced. The Crochet Reef project thus becomes an on-going evolutionary experiment in which the worldwide community of Reefers brings into being an ever-evolving crochet "tree of life."  

--Crochet Coral Reef

Note that there is potential for "endless variation" in the creation and recreation of these coral forms. That is the beauty of community, there is room for every individual and our unique expression in the tapestry of life. The coral reef reminds us that every person and, in the world of youth development, every kid has something to contribute to the project of life.

Get Out!

red maple bud

I'm adding a new feature to The Firefly:  Get Out!

Each week I'll drop an idea for getting outside--with or without kids--and connecting to nature.  

Here's the first idea:  bud.

bud¹

bəd/

noun

1. 1.

   a compact knoblike growth on a plant that develops into a leaf, flower, or shoot.

   synonyms:

   sprout, shoot, blossom;  plumule "fresh buds"

Trees make buds at the very ends of their branches. Buds set in the fall and sit, waiting all winter. What are they waiting for? Come spring, things start to change in our Minnesota world. Come a very early spring, things start happening faster. We just sprang forward, losing an hour of precious sleep. We're waking in darkness again, but at 7pm it's still light! That light is a catalyst for change. Chickens will lay more eggs now. We'll get more vitamin D. Plants are getting the message:  wake up!  Throw in some super-naturally warm weather and it's a recipe for accelerated change. Shakespeare wrote about "the darling buds of May," well we're more than a month ahead of schedule. Now is the perfect time to check out what's happening in the world of trees.

"And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom."

Anaïs Nin

river birch bud

Take a walk around your neighborhood and try to notice buds. Trees, bushes, shrubs-- they all have them. And they are all a little different. Notice shape, color, texture, smell. All of that is going to change rapidly in the next week or so, so try to re-visit the same buds and look out for transformation.

oak buds

If you can take along a small notepad or journal, try to stop and sketch what you see. Mindfulness begins with noticing. Stop and look. 

pussy willow buds blooming

Before you draw, give your attention to one little bud for 1 minute. 
Try two minutes. 
Can you stretch it to 3?  
Now draw for 2 minutes. Pay attention. 
Now look for another minute. 
Draw for 1 more minute. 

staghorn sumac bud

Keep walking and repeat, or not. When you get home, take a look at your drawing. Jot down a word to describe each aspect--

shape:

color:

texture:

smell:

Could you visit the same tree once or twice a week for the next three weeks?  Maybe the tree, or you will change...

red maple blossoms!

Transient Hypofrontality and You

Cultural theorist Johan Huizinga, was interested in the "play element of culture." In 1938, the Dutch author wrote a book called, Homo Ludens (Latin for "playing man"). As I understand it, Huizinga was trying to unpack how and why humans play, and he seemed particularly interested in highly organized forms of play. But Huizinga says this, "Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing."

Indeed, You Tube, provides us with a contemporary catalog of animals at play. We know that all those cats, dogs, monkeys, ferrets and even sloths (google "bucket of sloths" sometime) not only play, but enjoy doing so. Why animals (and people), enjoy play is probably a question that evolutionary geneticists like to try to answer. If you've ever seen a nature documentary about wolves, it likely included a cute montage of wolf pups playing with a leftover peice of caribou. Watching wolf pups play with their food, it seems pretty obvious to us that they are playing at being predators, or learning their most important life skill. I've watched my own cat gleefully take the tail of a mouse in her teeth and flip the hapless victim into the air again and again. My cat has long since learned the art of predation, and yet she still seems to enjoy playing in this way.

Perhaps the question of why animals like to play is one that has been answered by evolutionary geneticists and neurologists-- it seems to follow that whatever you like to do, you'll do more of. And we know--thanks to brain science--that practice increases performance. Active, joyful practice, or play, seems so obviously to be the field school for life in the animal kingdom. Why, then, do so many people have such a hard time accepting the importance of play in human development?

Stuart Brown, President of the National Institute for Play, has asserted that play is part of the "developmental sequencing of becoming a human primate. If you look at what produces learning and memory and well-being, play is as fundamental as any other aspect of life, including sleep and dreams." Rex Jung, neuropsychologist and creativity researcher and his colleagues have landed on something called, "transient hypofrontality," This is when the frontal lobes of the brain are not as active. The frontal lobes, integrating with the rest of the brain, are usually the drivers of intelligence.  Rex Young:  "with intelligence, the back part of the brain and the front part of the brain are integrated in a way that allows intelligence to work well. And the story with intelligence is more is better. Greater cortical thickness, more neurons, higher connectivity between those neurons, and more biochemicals subserving those neurons was almost invariably better for intelligence." But greater creativity occurs when those frontal lobes relax and the rest of the brain "wander."  Young: "With creativity, it's a slower, more meandering process where you want to take the side roads and even the dirt roads to get there, to put ideas together. So the down regulation of frontal lobes, in particular, is important to allow those ideas to link together in unexpected ways."  I hear this, and I hear validation of the importance of play. How are people to innovate, to form new hypotheses, to solve big problems (like global warming), if we do not have time to play and find new, unexpected connections?  And to "back up the truck," how are children to grow integrated minds and discover who they are without ample time to experiment and play?


It seems to me that the scientific research around playing in nature supports the notion that nature can help induce this "transient hypofrontality," in our brains. Unplugging and playing outside, it has been suggested, by many, including cognitive psychologist, David Strayer, may improve our physical well-being and the performance of our brains. "Our brains...aren't tireless three-pound machines; they're easily fatigued. When we slow down, stop the busywork, and take in beautiful natural surroundings, not only do we feel restored, but our mental performance improves too."

My own busy teen-aged twins get up in the morning and go to school. They attend classes in windowless rooms and they do not go outside, even for PE class, on a daily basis. They role immediately from school into wonderful, but inside and mostly highly structured activities. When they head home, darkness is falling, it's dinner time and hours of homework await. This is the standard experience of teens across America. This is the system of daily life we have created and perpetuated for them. And our adult experience doesn't look much different. What do we do?

I assert that we hold on to the notion that play in nature is a catalyst-- not only for human creativity, but for human wellness, efficiency and innovation. I suggest that we keep advocating for and supporting those institutions that connect us to nature-based recreation and play. And I think we owe it to our kids and ourselves to share this value with parents, educators and legislators. For more information on the power of play in nature and for opportunities to advocate, visit:  The Children and Nature Network.


If you'd like to find out how kids can play outside after school in your community, contact Camp Fire Minnesota.