NL
I just went on another walk through the Castro. One of the most beautiful feelings is watching the trees bend and sway in the wind, and then having a moment of "oh shit, I don't actually know what kind of tree this is". I learned in elementary school, I'm sure of it, but now it's just "tree". I wish I had plant blindness for humans too. Not in a misanthropic way, but in a way where I could just see people as "person" without all the categorization machinery firing up immediately. Gender, age, race, class, attractiveness, threat level - my brain does all of this automatically and I hate it. But I also can't unlearn it without becoming dangerously naive. The categories exist for a reason. They compress useful information. A grizzly bear and a black bear are both "bears" but that matters a lot if you encounter one. I think this is what privilege really means - the luxury of not having to maintain those threat models. Of being able to have plant blindness for humans. The trees don't judge me when I can't name them. They just keep swaying. I downloaded a plant identification app. Going to re-learn all the tree names. Maybe it'll help somehow. Also I finished The Brutalist. The last hour redeemed it somewhat. Still don't think it deserved Best Picture though <3
*not me (yet)!