We know what glaciers do. We know what they did. They leave evidence of their work in a landscape reshaped in many ways: U-shaped valleys, ponds and lakes, mounds of rocks, soils, and sands, and more.
Sometimes that evidence is constructive: Glaciers can deposit vast amounts of rock debris, sands, and soils in large piles or in hummocky terrain. Sometimes the evidence is destructive: Massive sheets of ice can gouge a land, even one underlain by tough igneous rock.
Golf. In Florida. Coastal plain along the Gulf of Mexico, long a nonglacial environment, a mostly flat surface now interrupted by golf courses, those hummocky landscapes with imported sands reminiscent of glaciated lands. But why?
Scotland was at one time covered by glaciers. Scotland was the birthplace of golf. Made the connection? Yes, people design golf courses to look like Scotland. People play on artificial Scottish landscapes.
Ask a golfer, “Why do golf courses look the way they do?” You’ll probably get the answer, “All the humps and traps on the course make the game more challenging.”
Yes, the bumps in the landscape and the sand traps do add difficulty. It’s just the difficulty of playing on a natural Scottish landscape.
In our personal lives and social interactions, the same reshaping applies. And because there have been millennia of humans reshaping what it means to be human, of human constructing and deconstructing, it’s difficult for us to know why we shape our lives and societies as we do. Many of those changes occurred at a glacial pace much longer than an individual could observe during a lifetime.
The golf courses are there. We use them, even when the model for their use could not have been naturally emplaced. We play golf on the Gulf in a subtropical climate where no glacier can form.
Today, you’ll have the thought, “I need to change this (whatever).” You might be correct in your assessment; maybe something seems worth changing. Just ask yourself why you want to change. What is the nature of the replacement, the reshaping? Are you mimicking some human landscape made long ago under different circumstances? Are you putting a golf course on your personal Gulf plain? Golf along the Gulf. Interesting.
Sometimes that evidence is constructive: Glaciers can deposit vast amounts of rock debris, sands, and soils in large piles or in hummocky terrain. Sometimes the evidence is destructive: Massive sheets of ice can gouge a land, even one underlain by tough igneous rock.
Golf. In Florida. Coastal plain along the Gulf of Mexico, long a nonglacial environment, a mostly flat surface now interrupted by golf courses, those hummocky landscapes with imported sands reminiscent of glaciated lands. But why?
Scotland was at one time covered by glaciers. Scotland was the birthplace of golf. Made the connection? Yes, people design golf courses to look like Scotland. People play on artificial Scottish landscapes.
Ask a golfer, “Why do golf courses look the way they do?” You’ll probably get the answer, “All the humps and traps on the course make the game more challenging.”
Yes, the bumps in the landscape and the sand traps do add difficulty. It’s just the difficulty of playing on a natural Scottish landscape.
In our personal lives and social interactions, the same reshaping applies. And because there have been millennia of humans reshaping what it means to be human, of human constructing and deconstructing, it’s difficult for us to know why we shape our lives and societies as we do. Many of those changes occurred at a glacial pace much longer than an individual could observe during a lifetime.
The golf courses are there. We use them, even when the model for their use could not have been naturally emplaced. We play golf on the Gulf in a subtropical climate where no glacier can form.
Today, you’ll have the thought, “I need to change this (whatever).” You might be correct in your assessment; maybe something seems worth changing. Just ask yourself why you want to change. What is the nature of the replacement, the reshaping? Are you mimicking some human landscape made long ago under different circumstances? Are you putting a golf course on your personal Gulf plain? Golf along the Gulf. Interesting.
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