The Tao, an ancient Chinese guide to living in harmony with the universe, is seen as a way to greater personal fulfillment. Adherents to the principles of the Tao claim that it enables them to connect seeming disparate experiences and pieces of the world and to create a manageable, unified whole. Taoists deliberately avoid approaching the world frenetically.

Harmony is the key.

It is often said, perhaps reflecting the egoism of our species more than reality, that humans are the only creatures in our world who are truly self-aware. As a self-aware person my goal is to experience the world. I want to see all of it in its chaotic randomness, and I want to feel it as a whole. In spite of chaos, sometimes to the point of absurdity, I want to believe there is balance and unity in the world, that sense can be made of it.


Just as teaching did for me in all the years of a long career, photography helps me see wholeness. One of the most important lessons I learned as a teacher is that all learning, all education, is about the connectedness of things. The primary role of the teacher is to help people move toward wholeness, to see and feel wholeness. Whenever we set about trying to learn anything that is new to us, we begin with pieces of information that can be studied. We understand one piece or part of a piece at a time, and eventually we put the pieces together. An attempt that fails is also part of the learning process and becomes a new piece of information. We must know why an attempt fails in order to try again. Of course, we can make multiple attempts without stopping to analyze why the pieces are not fitting together. At some point in the process the pieces come together, they become part of a sensible whole. Sometimes a series of random attempts at getting the pieces to fit together can result in the right fit, wholeness. Even then understanding comes when we understand the connectedness.

The world is a collection of disintegrated parts. Seen and felt separately those parts often have little or no meaning. The teacher addresses the problem of disintegration and helps the student get enough information and experience to see the world as a manageable, integrated whole.

Between a little less than something
and a little more than nothing
beauty lies...You must see a bigger version of these meercats at the San Diego Zoo. Click on the picture.