“Reading about Istanbul, or looking at pictures, does not prepare you for the experience of walking along the Bosphorus and in winding cobbled streets, smelling the kebab, being invited in by kind strangers to join them for apple tea. Similarly, reading about the rainforest, watching documentaries that are well researched and beautifully shot, does not prepare you for the experience of having toucans fly overhead in the understory, the deep beat of their wings a slow rhythm in the jangled cacophony. The rainforest documentary does not prepare you for the red eye shine of spiders at night, the suction of deep mud on your boots, the deep dark green of it all. Strangely, it is also true that actually being in the rainforest does not fully prepare you for being in the rainforest, by which I mean, the experience is never the same twice. That is part of why it is so alluring to some of us” ExperienceExperiencesImmersionExperiencingExperiencing LifeFirst HandFirst Hand Knowledge Author:Heather E. Heying
“Engaging in the physical world; learning how to build or make or do something in the physical world, where the results aren't negotiable; you can't claim that you did it if you didn't; you either summited, or the cake is edible, or the eggplant grew, or the table is made - whatever it is, doing something that is a physical manifestation in the world will create strength and ability. [And that physical experience is important because unless you have experience you may have inaccurate ideas about things.] Experience reveals your biases. And it reveals the holes in your thinking. And it informs you and enables you to become a much more complete and frankly, compassionate human being.” UnderstandingExperienceExplorationLife ExperienceBiasExploringBiasesInaccuraciesStreetwiseFirst Hand Knowledge Author:Heather E. Heying