It's the Weekend: The Necessity of Exploration

 "Certain things can only be learnt by interacting with the physical world - testing its dimensions, knocking at its doors. If we can't do that in childhood, when we are most curious and least inhibited, we're unlikely to get another chance... 84 percent of eight year olds navigate by scrutinizing their surroundings and building a mental map, a so-called spacial strategy... only 46 percent of us still use the spatial approach in our twenties, and 39 [percent] in our sixties. It seems we all start off roaming free, but most of us end up on the straight and narrow."

I have written before on the topic of gps, turn-by-turn navigation, freeway soundwalls, etc., and how these things dilute our ability to explore, discover and learn. I just started reading a terrific new book (2020) called From Here to There: The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way, by Michael Bond - the quote above is from the book - it is something I can see referencing in multiple posts here at the blog in the future.

The gist so far - let those kids explore, if exploration is something you have always done, keep at it. To those I might add, if exploration has slipped away from your life, you can get back at it, and it's never too late to start.

It's the weekend - get out and explore, weekends are made for local explorations!

A few photos from the week that has been, so far:

this red-tail hawk was nervously and, somewhat precariously, sitting his narrow post. He appeared ready to fly off at any moment, and I wouldn't be able to get his photo, so I stopped riding and dismounted, creeping forward on foot; it wasn't good enough, he started craning his neck and leaning, trying decided what I was trying to do. Deciding the human must be up to something, he took off, as expected.