A lesson from nature

Athol Fugard brought human psychological and social struggles into the context of communing with nature in his play A Lesson from Aloes. He built the link on the plant collector’s persistent problem of identifying a new plant that does not quite fit the description of any familiar species.

Grey areas come in rainbow colours!  In nature all species evolve and move over stereotypical borders into the features of their offspring. People struggle in their minds with racial issues because their comfort zones of loving those that are just like themselves are shaken by discovering such good people in stereotyped groups of branded undesirables.

From Aristotle and earlier the human mind has been concerned with the labelling and categorisation of notions, objects, words… all that may enter the mind from perception or internal production. 

Nature is rich in things we can classify. But it does not respect our artificial borders imposed on living diversity.