OUR WORLD
REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Original Thinking:
A Radical Revisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature
T
by Glenn Aparicio Parry
his book is
modest and
intimate
in
tone, but vast
and lofty in
ambition.
History and
folk tales weave through the
narrative like warp and weft,
while nature provides the ancient patterns that we have
forgotten. Parry explores the
devolution of our relationship
with nature from regarding her
as mother and teacher to becoming a source of riches to
be plundered or an adversary
to be mastered. Original thinking perceives life as an integral
whole, fed by knowledge and
inspiration from the natural environment.
There was a turning point in art history when the
ability to depict perspective took us outside of the
frame where we became the observer rather than
an integral part of the picture. This illustrated both
a conceptual and spiritual separation from what
was observed that culminated in the age of reason, and the dominance of rational thought over
feeling and intuition. While we gained the ability to
develop science, mathematics and technology, it
came at the cost of our estrangement from nature
and from ourselves as spirit.
Not seeing ourselves as a part of the flow of creation and kin to all life cuts us off from the source
of love that sustains our balance and vitality. Parry
urges us to reconnect to the ground of our being
with our roots firmly planted in the soil of compassion and love for ourselves and for all of nature.
56 | NEW CONSCIOUSNESS REVIEW
Parry is very passionate about
rethinking our system of education. When we look at the
process of education as a way
to learn from but not be bound
by the past, we encourage curiosity and exploration of ideas,
unshackled by academic conventions and received wisdom.
Higher education is not serving
us well because of the division of
academia into more and more
specialized disciplines; this encourages myopic thinking and
leads people to lose sight of
the interconnections among all
subjects and the cross-fertilization that would leave all minds
enriched. Parry urges us to see
education not just as a path to
earning a living, but as an initiation into one’s life
purpose. It should be a system that maximizes our
creativity and encourages the use all of our human
aspects – our spiritual, intuitive, mental and physical selves – as an integrated whole.
This book is a clarion call to nourish our roots before they wither. It has the air of ancient tales told
around the fire, drawing us into the beauty that
is our birthright, and a sense of relationship and
community with all of life. Aho.
Reviewed by Miriam Knight
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