My Life as a Poe Hoe

Nil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio. - Seneca

"Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than excessive cleverness." Just in case you were wondering about that quote. It's my only apology for the horrific title of this post. It's also the epigraph to Poe's "The Purloined Letter." And, according to Wikipedia, Seneca probably didn't even say it. Which might be funny, in an "Edgar, you rogue," sort of way.

As you probably know, in "The Purloined Letter," *spoiler alert* Poe's Dupin solves the mystery of a hidden letter by realizing that it's sitting in the open. *end spoiler alert*

It's a perspective thing.

As usual.

"If it is any point requiring reflection," observed Dupin, as he forbore to enkindle the wick, "we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark."

"That is another of your odd notions," said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every thing "odd" that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of "oddities."

I'm hardly breaking new ground by realizing that I live too far away from where I actually am. Resting on un-gotten laurels. Searching the forgotten corners of life for a meaning. Making simplicity incredibly complicated.

"And what is the difficulty now?" I asked. "Nothing more in the assassination way, I hope?"

"Oh no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple indeed, and I make no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well ourselves; but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the details of it, because it is so excessively odd."

"Simple and odd," said Dupin.

"Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether."

"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault," said my friend.

"What nonsense you do talk!" replied the Prefect, laughing heartily.

"Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain," said Dupin.

"Oh, good heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?"

"A little too self-evident."

"Ha! ha! ha! --ha! ha! ha! --ho! ho! ho!" --roared our visitor, profoundly amused, "oh, Dupin, you will be the death of me yet!"

I forget that effort is not necessarily the engine for satisfaction. That trying so hard to "find the answer" often makes seeing it impossible.

Sometimes you need to relax.

Sometimes you need to have fun.

One thing is for sure: if you get too far ahead of yourself, you will end up falling two steps backwards for every forward step.

It's ok to be a farmer. Farmers have no choice but to do things in order.

Farmers deal with growing things. Growing things take time. They take work.

Farmers don't reap before it's time to harvest. They don't plow through seedlings. They don't plant one seed over another. There's an order to their work cycles.

That's not to say that the process is flat or uni-dimensional.

Farming is not boring. Good farming is diverse. While easier and potentially more lucrative, monocultures end up, ahem, putting all the eggs in one basket. But it's unwise.

I won't get too deep into it. Even though I'm sure you've figured out the obvious comparisons, I'll probably blog on monocultures more later. But for now...

1. Don't look too hard for something that may be in front of you the whole time.
1b. Don't use "exploration" when "realization" is needed.
2. Don't reorganize the cycles. They are in that order for a reason.
3. Give the plants some time to grow. Some things grow slower than others.
3b. Make sure everything is still growing. Dead things don't grow. If need be, prune that sucker.