CONTROL: orange is not just another colour.

ascendancy, authority,, clout, containment, , discipline, domination, dominion, jurisdiction, limitation, management, manipulation,might,  predomination, regimentation, regulation, restraint,restriction, subjection, subordination, superintendence,supervision, supremacy, So many words to say the same thing; just goes to show how much we care about the nature of this relationship. If Eskimo's have a large number of words for snow, the english could describe rain for hours without repeating themselves. When I began to explore organic growing it was as a philosophy as much as practicality and central to this was the relationship with Life. As we act upon the physical world so we shape this relationship, consequences rippling out from the action influencing all that it touches. It's not that I dwell so much at this level when I am working, but that I explored the nature of that place informs the decisions I make. It shapes the movements of my hand as well as the world that I perceive and so the expression of my relationship with life, my 'conversation' with organisms other than myself. Half the time I don't know what I am doing, it is often done before I am aware of the doing, then I explain the action to myself. To work consciously is to over-work the process, to be one with the moment we must act without thought but not thoughtlessly. The action emerges from who we are and is an expression of our deepest nature. We shape and are shaped and what emerges is a result of the process; we shape the process not the result.  Control of oneself, ones desires' is fundamental but it is not at the leading edge, the place where matter is shaped, it is several layers back. The strength of a knife is not at the edge, that mono-molecular transition from metal to air is as fragile as paper. It is the metal behind the edge that exerts control. When travelling fast on a motorbike decisions have to be made in less time than one has available. To survive one must predict the world a few milliseconds ahead in order to act in time to avoid accidents. The cutting edge is not where decisions are made. Defining outcomes is the norm but this can only be an approximation, if we zoom in on anything, description and definition fail as the inherent complexity of the world we seek to describe defeats our efforts; the box we build will never fit perfectly. This can be a real problem if you are a control freak. I have worked for several clients for whom orange was not just another colour, even discussing the colour was enough to begin the unravelling of a psyche teettering on the edge. Knuckles blanch, jaw tightens and the voice looses modulation as ease departs and an authoritarian imperitive drives the exchange. The power imbalance magnifies the anxiety as she struggles to justify a phobia without losing face. I do remember a magnificent large pot of Tiger lillies placed at the bottom of the main steps to the garden, a strong but appropriate planting. " Do you think that looks ok" the boss said " I love it" I replied, he looked down on me, which was an achievement as I was 6 inches taller than him, and with a look one might give pond life and told me he didn't wish to see it again. The colour offended him at a deep level, another garden owner would not have orange anywhere; there is a visceral quality to this dislike and I think it is about control. Colour resonates with our nature and orange is of the solar plexus; fundamental to the exercise of will; for those insecure or feeling challenged this can be too much! Where is the garden we think we are both seeing? is it out there or in here; are we discussing gardens of the mind, do they exist before our perception of them and do we predict what it is that we will experience? I think we would agree upon physical features, more or less on colour but on Meaning? As we dig down through layers of more subtle association and correspondence where does you vision depart from mine. This may seem pedantic but when shaping life the resolution is of quanta, for that is the very stuff of the natural process. No matter how painstaking the design, or careful the execution it is a crude beginning to the process which continues down and down and on and on and out and out beyond perception.  Once released the bubble of mindstuff in which we see ourselves reflected floats on currents too tenuous to support any but he lightest touch; what chance control without destroying the vision contained there? free, free as air; out of harness, independent, at large, loose, scot-free; left alone,left to oneself., in full swing; uncaught, unconstrained, unbuttoned, unconfined,unrestrained, unchecked, unprevented, unhindered, unobstructed, unbound,uncontrolled, untrammeled., unsubject, ungoverned, unenslaved, unenthralled,unchained, unshackled, unfettered, unreined, unbridled, uncurbed, unmuzzled.,unrestricted, unlimited, unconditional; ,unassailed, unforced, uncompelled., unbiassed, spontaneous., free and easy;  at one's ease; degage, quite at home; wanton, rampant, irrepressible..............unvanquished.